Today Apple turned on they’re variable pricing announced at Macworld earlier in the year. This also means their entire iTunes catalog of more that 9 million songs are now all 256 kbps and DRM-free.
Unfortunately the variable pricing means Australians will pay up to $2.19 per track. Admittedly a majority of tracks even in the Top Songs list are still $1.69. This means consumers really need to pay attention to the price before clicking the Buy button.
Hopefully those music labels / artists charging the $2.19 learn very quickly that consumers won’t fit pay extra for tracks just because they’re popular.
My main problem with the price is that instead of reducing the gap between US and Australian pricing, it makes it worse. US$0.99 somehow equaled A$1.69 and now the popular tracks at US$1.29 somehow equate A$2.19. I’m not sure what exchange rate / tax equation Apple’s using, but it’d be nice to see them justify stinging Australians the extra coin.
