Digital Home Thoughts: Music Moguls vs. Steve Jobs: Fight!

"When Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs walked into the suites of top record label executives in 2002, iTunes software in hand, he was welcomed as a trailblazer to a digital music future. Now, nearly two years after Apple's iTunes launch, record executives have become worried that they have inadvertently ceded too much power over their industry to this charismatic computer executive. Frustrated at what they see as Jobs' intransigence on song pricing and other issues, some record executives are now turning their hopes toward other partners, particularly mobile phone carriers eager to get into the business of selling music. They see this new focus as a way to broaden the digital music business, and lessen Apple's dominance over their market in the process."

A very interesting article about how the music studios feel now that they made a deal with the devil so to speak. From a consumer point of view, it's great that Jobs is holding fast to the 99 cent price point, but the music studios want to go beyond that and charge more for popular songs. At my local Blockbuster I pay more for new releases than older movies, but through a DVD rental service such as Zip.ca all movies are created equal. We're talking about ownership versus subscription though, so the comparison may not be fair. In the world of DVD purchases, you tend to pay more for a hot new release than an old movie. But does the same concept apply to music?