You will not pay "more" for iPad apps, relatively speaking

Some screenshots have leaked from the upcoming iPad App Store, and some classic iPhone apps in their "HD" flavor are running $2.99 and $1.99, rather than $.99. Run for your lives! Of course, there's a little bit of perspective to keep in mind here: When the iPhone app store launched, many of those same apps were $4.99 or even, gasp, $9.99! Those were crazy days, kids.

The point being, relative to where the prices were at the debut of the last app store, you're actually paying less than for those same apps on the iPad. Why didn't Apple include the iWork apps in the device, rather than charge $10 a pop? Well, they were probably trying to signal to developers that a higher price point was acceptable (and maybe even preferable) for the iPad. If a majority of the apps at launch cost more than their iPhone counterparts did at launch, it would seem developers didn't get the message. Either that, or they know the ceiling of what people will pay for apps, and it's about $4.99.

How the Music Industry Just Killed Itself. Again.

Yes, iTunes changed its pricing on April 7th, and no, no one's very happy about it. Now as other music retailers like Amazon have followed suit, it's becoming clear(er) that the labels are behind this latest pricing change.

Music is their product, and they are free to price it as they wish. Consumers are then also free to weigh whether a 30% increase in a product's price is worth it, or whether their time is better spent searching for the song by other means.

Ironically though, it seems like having tiered pricing may have created a new headache, especially for the artists. Billboard has done some preliminary research, and it looks like in general, tracks on the top 100 chart priced at $1.29 have fallen in rank, while a majority of $.99 tracks have moved up. 

What does it tell us? It means beyond musical sensibility, beyond the art behind the music, consumers are looking at the cold hard cost of buying a track. No artist should have to wonder whether it was a lack of public interest, or the pricing decision of the record label that led a track to fail or succeed. Just look at the app store to see how the price of apps has been driven lower, potentially at the cost of losing quality apps at a higher price point.

The industry has created a slippery slope, in which in six months time, we could see the charts dominated by those (now rare) $.69 cent tracks. When getting to #1 is more about the price of the track than the viability of the music, the industry loses. The end game is free tracks, and while that will be great for consumers, the record label execs can start packing their boxes now.