Why Apple is really more expensive than Amazon
listeningtoreason.blogspot.com
listeningtoreason.blogspot.com
I find it amusing to be talking about whether they have the right to specify their price structure. As far as I can tell, it's still some healthy market forces at play, I don't think the line to monopolistic behaviour has been crossed just yet.
What I don't quite understand about this whole debate is the variable pricing part. If I go into a shop selling CDs these days, almost all the albums are going for almost exactly €18 (~$28) except for the occasional special offer on albums that are a few months old. (as opposed to new releases or the back-catalogue) There's hardly any differentiation in price going on there. Are retailers playing the Apple game as well? Or is the whining about price fixing really the record industry complaining that it can't charge crazy money for all music? (if you ask me, €18 is more than enough - and we in Europe don't even get to buy cheap-ish MP3s from amazon)
Wait, we're talking about the recorded music industry, right? An industry that continues to exist only because a massive regulatory structure prevents me from just giving you a copy of all of my albums?
You might be able to convince me that, on balance, this is a good monopoly... if the public domain still existed. Which it doesn't. (Thanks, Mickey Mouse and Sonny Bono!) But, whether you approve of it or not, it crossed the line of "monopolistic behaviour" more than a generation ago.