Is iTunes Variable Pricing Right?

April 7, 2009 marked the change of Apple’s pricing scheme for it’s iTunes music downloads. From one price fits all, it shifted to a variable pricing scheme. With songs as high as $1.29 to as low as $0.69. The $0.99 price point will remain for other songs. Basically what this means is that the new/popular songs will be priced higher, the older and less popular will be priced at the lowest price point and the rest will remain at the $0.99 price point.

Apple had to give in sometime to the demands of the record labels, who are currently struggling with dipping CD sales and trying to find the best strategy to leverage digital downloads. In exchange Apple got the record companies to drop DRM for the songs. Apple has completed migrating it’s song library to the DRM less version. This is good for consumers.

Another thing that the record labels agreed on was to allow people to download songs via the iPhone and the iPod Touch. So all in all it was a good deal.

I’ve always been a fan of simplicity. I feel that the best way to get loyal customers is to make it easy and pleasurable for them to buy your products. This is what Apple did for iTunes. It was a no-brainer, at the price point they set, you almost didn’t need to think about whether or not you’ll buy a song. It was that easy and cheap.

However, changing times call for a change in strategy as well. While variable pricing means the buying gets a little more complicated, I think it’s not a big step down. With only 3 tiers, it’s still fairly easy to buy a song. Sure the $1.29 $.30 more and considering we’re going through tough economic times, I think having the songs DRM free is a good trade-off. In the interim this is a workable solutin wherein everyone will be satisfied.

Is variable pricing right? I think at this time, it is. Let me know what you think. Leave a comment below.