You Can't Always Get What You Want (Or Pay For)

The digital age has brought a wealth of opportunities for music consumers to find new music, and a wealth of wealthiness for the companies ripping consumers off. That trend will end (or continue, depending on how you look at it) thanks to a new deal between iTunes and EMI.

Allow me to explain.

There are four major record labels in the entire world (called "The Big Four") which own 81% of the global music market. The rest is left to "independent" labels. But between Universal, Sony, Warner, and EMI, the music world is essentially split amongst four giant conglomerates. EMI, one of the Big Four, has been the least accompanying with iTunes, heretofore holding onto the Beatles' digital catalog as though it were made of digital diamonds. But thanks to EMI's persuasive skills and the power of Lennon-McCartney, iTunes is making some changes.

See, before now, everyone who's bought a track or album on iTunes has gotten screwed. When you buy an album on iTunes, you're buying a second-hand version of that album. A retail CD plays at 320 kilobytes per second (kbps). An iTunes album plays at 128 kbps. That's a huge drop-off. In addition to getting a second-hand copy of an album, consumers are also giving up their full ownership rights to that album. Thanks to something called DRM (digital rights management), consumers who buy an album on iTunes can only make a certain amount of copies of that album. This wouldn't be a problem to most people; they just want it on their iPods or computers to listen to once in a while. But it's somewhat akin to buying a DVD, watching it four times, and then being forced to give it back. It's like renting music for full price.

But now, thanks to EMI, consumers will have full rights to the music that they buy, if they get it DRM-free. They'll also get a version that plays at 256 kbps, that while still short of the 320 mark CDs provide, is actually pretty good. Hooray for justice!

Of course, it's not that simple. Thanks to these super-awesome advances for consumers, iTunes is going to bump up their prices. If you want to actually own your music and expect that it'll be of somewhat decent quality, you're going to have to shell out $1.29 as opposed to the usual 99 cents. As per iTunes' usual track-to-album ratio, that'll mean albums will go for $12.99 — no less than anything you can get on Amazon.com or City Lights Records, places which will give you a full 320 kbps version of the music.

In the end, I suppose the decision is left up to the consumer, which means the masses who see nothing but $1.29 versus 99 cents will continue to buy cheap. But if you expect to get everything you pay for, I suggest hitting the local record store.