Before April of 2010 people could hook up to iTunes, search their favorite song, and press the “buy now” button, receiving a great hit for a grand total of $.99. As of April 7, however, that notion has been thrown out in favor of the new and improved price of $1.29. This amount was conceived to offset the decrease in CD sales since the rise in portable music players such as iPods, Zunes, and mp3 players, but the new price is completely and totally ridiculous for the product that is being sold.

                The .30 cent jack-up on price was probably one of the worst courses of action iTunes could take. They aren’t helping their business by bumping the cost, only damaging their monetary intake. Why would people pay such an outrageous amount when they could find that song for much, much lower prices illegally as well as legally?

                Paying extra money, no matter how much extra, is a big deal in the times that we live in. That cash is needed for other things that are necessities. Music, not being a necessity, is therefore not going to be purchased if you have to pay more for it.

                Music has a psychological effect. It has the ability to get our blood pumping, emotions high and our heads bobbing. Or it can bring out our tears, increase our depression and make us remember. No matter what effect takes place, music makes it. For some, music is their one place of solitude, of throwing off inhibitions. How many of us have danced in front of the mirror in our underwear with a hair brush to our lips bursting out, “I throw my hands up in the air sometimes singing, AYO!” or “Baby you’re a firework! Come on, show ‘em what your worth!”? I doubt any of us can say “not me.” By jacking up the price iTunes is possibly taking away the one way of stress relief some kids have access to after a grueling day of failed chemistry tests and spilled lunch trays.

                Though iTunes is the most well known way to get a single song, it is not the least expensive by a long shot. Before the price increase, iTunes was the number one place that people bought songs. Not because of the great price, but because of its well known name and familiarity. After the jump in cost though, many people are finding other alternatives. Kazagold.com, beemp3.com, artistserver.com, bearshare.com, and livemusicarchive.com are just a few of the free music downloading sites that are being discovered. And almost all of them are legal. This is why many are saying, “Why in the world would you buy a track for $1.29 when you can get the same song and quality for free?”

                The mindset of iTunes is that they are giving you more than what you are paying for. But in actuality they are not. Under the new policy that goes along with the outrageous demand of $1.29, iTunes lifted the inhibition of their anti-piracy software, making it possible to play the song you have purchased on whatever device you want and letting you make as many copies as of that song as you want. But that is nothing new to those who use other apparatus to get music. You can copy and play the songs just as liberally with any of the free download sites out there, and they cost nothing. They also offer songs at $.69 and $.99, but those songs are normally the supposedly “great hits” that never actually made it to “great”, so it’s still a rip off.

                If iTunes wants to increase their profits they should keep the price the same but stop endorsing the CD companies and start pushing their clients to do so also. If something isn’t selling you don’t keep producing it. This new price is completely ridiculous and is making iTunes the laughingstock of the music industry. They may think they are being clever and helping themselves, but in reality they have just lost everything but their name. And as anybody knows, names only go so far as the actions of those that hold them.