Music Mess as iTunes Discounts Adele, Carrie Underwood, Versus Bieber, One Direction
It’s hard to measure what’s actually number 1 when everything is a different price.
On the pop charts, pricing is now an issue as all the top hits are being offered at wildly conflicting ranges.
For example: iTunes has pumped up sales of Carrie Underwood’s new album by discounting it to an incredible $5.99. The result is that “Storyteller” is number 3 on the iTunes charts. Who wouldn’t buy something for $5.99 just to see what it is? That’s what albums sold for 40 years ago. “Storyteller” is also at that price (for download) at amazon.
Meanwhile, Adele’s forthcoming “25” album is ranked as the number 1 album on both iTunes, where it’s selling for $10.99, and amazon, where it’s the same price for the download and but only $9.99 for the CD, which you could buy and then upload into a computer for free. That’s four dollars off the basic list price. It’s also four dollars cheaper than the deluxe edition of One Direction’s “Made in the AM,” which is at number 6 on iTunes awaiting release next Friday, and two dollars less than Justin Bieber’s “Purpose,” currently second to Adele.
So what’s doing better? The deep discounted albums or the highly price ones? Over at amazon, the Beatles’ new “1+1” box set, selling for $50.98, is at number 4 among their physical CDs. (It’s worth it.)
And who’s eating the cost of these discounts? The record companies take the hit to stimulate sales and chart position. But there’s no parity, just a free-for-all on the charts.
[…] Confusing signals on which songs are “number one.” […]
If you’re in the top 100 you’re there
[…] Showbizz411 takes a look at the music business and current album prices. Yep, if the albums on sale (ed: or with a special promotion) it’s all about CHART POSITION! […]
Who’s buying this crap anyways?
I wish Apple would just bring back the Music player from iOS 6, before they screwed it up royally by listing albums in reverse chronological order in the Artist category. Who the hell listens to an artists discography backwards?
There is only so much money to spend on music. He who offers the most gets a sale. Its the market, even for art.
[…] Mess: iTunes Discounts ADELE, UNDERWOOD vs. BIEBER, ONE DIRECTION… […]
[…] Music Mess as iTunes Discounts Adele, Carrie Underwood, Versus Bieber, One Direction – “Storyteller” is also at that price (for download) at amazon … But there’s no parity, just a free-for-all on the charts. Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. He … […]
It’s called supply and demand and market pricing. It’s a delicate balance of volume and margin. All businesses (both “manufacturers”/content creators and middlemen/retailers) must dance that dance.
I remember 20 years when CDs seemed so over-priced and largest section in the CD section was ‘alternative’. What a time!
I can tell you why the music is now discounted and no one is buying….the music SUCKS!!!
The Music Business? There isn’t any. It’s an Illusion, perpetuated by
gangsters, and it is eating itself. “Adele’ is a Joke, as is ‘Bieber’. They
are talking to themselves, only. “The Public” gave up on them a long
time, ago. All old ‘media’ is flailing wildly as their lies are unveiled, and
their death-throes become increasingly obvious.
I don’t understand … How is this different than any other time in the history of selling records?
We live in an age where millenials expect their entertainment fast, free and without ads…a scenario that is unsustainable. But it’s a genie thats hard to put back in the bottle. Short of heavy handed measures to stop the free streaming sites and YouTube free plays, the artists will have to rely on live performances & merchandising for most of their income. And if anyone has seen the Jack White 360 VR songs on Google cardboard, you know there is an emerging income stream of concert receipts from people sitting at home 3000 miles away.
iTunes? Hmmm….yeah, I think I’ve heard of that. Kid stuff, right?