With iTunes being the leader in digital music, Amazon.com has tried to compete by slashing prices. The latest example of this occurred more recently when Apple presented the public with the Beatles’ catalog. The move was so important because the Beatles have never been available to iTunes users. In a smaller capacity, Amazon decided to release Kid Rock’s latest project for $3.99. Rock’s music is also not available on iTunes. Still, despite all of these price cuts, it doesn’t seem like Amazon is a threat to Apple for now. In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Geoffrey Fowler and Dan Gallagher discuss how this might change.
It seems Amazon’s discounts on albums may allow it to prosper. At a time when album sales are down, digital albums seem to be booming, particularly more than single song sales. The article points to Kid Rock’s latest disc, where Born Free sold 189,000 copies. Twelve percent of that came via digital sales, despite the album not being available on iTunes.
Amazon also has the Daily Deal, where an album could cost less than $4.00 and a monthly deal where 100 albums can be sold for $5.00 each. Amazon is currently eating the losses for some of these deals, as was most likely the case with Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, but it may pay off in the end. That’s because, as the article notes, these discounts win new customers for the brand.
The article further points out statistics to back its claim that digital album downloads have grown. It notes that sales of actual discs have fallen 20% this year. However, digital album downloads soared 13% to about 75 million.
On the flip side of this is the perspective of artists and others involved in creating the product. It seems some are worried that the lower price tags cheapen the value of the art. For more on the article, visit the Wall Street Journal.
Another 5 years and CD’s wont exist at all
Hope ur wrong, still love the tactile experience of new music.
Its Kinda pathetic when a “Superstar” like a Kanye West has to resort to selling his albums $3.99 and people still arent buying it, lol
Kanye is still moving units right?? Not sure why this is even relevant.
How many albums YOU sold, dickhead?
How many records I sold??
None, I have a real job where people cant freely download my paycheck and then complain about my performance
Rather work at Mcdonalds then be a musician, I’d be begging Service Providers for addresses and wind up in jail for killin some 12 year old who downloaded my shit, lol
@ Jugo
If you call what Kanye’s doing “Moving Units” then thats sad, cause that album aint gonna see platinum for another 6 months, and for such a big star, thats embarassing, real talk
@STFU….. you really need to stfu cause you aint the one makin millions… in todays world where half the people just illegally download music what kanye’s doin is fuckin good. And you could say what you want about Kanye but he murdered the whole album, shouldnt even be in the same sentence of that lame bitch nicki minaj who wouldnt know real rap if it slapped her in the ass.
You actually have to read the article to understand what is going on, not skim through it. Even if Amazon decides to sell the album at $1.99, they still have the pay the MSRP to the record label. Amazon has to eat it. Call it a form of advertising. They’re spending advertising dollars on giving the consumer a discount on music.
Plus, Taylor Swift’s album in its physical form was $3.99 its first full week. Not digital.
“…it doesn’t seem like Amazon is a thread to Apple for now”. Please spellcheck
if you support real hip hop check this out!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxEtfs36qpg
This is the only reason nicki is selln. Hell u can get the album for a dollar. Smh she should be at a million. Not hattn but when ur album is lay’s potato chips cheap you can’t really brag too much ……………….
FUCK ITUNES…I would rather support Amazon any day!
I’ve bought like 3 albums from Itunes, all of the rest I get hard copy form amazon, i refuse to get the digital version the actual cd to me is 10X better. And I might as well, itunes has digital downloads for 10 bucks while amazon has actual cd’s for 12 bucks, its worth the 2 extras. Itunes is garbage
i just got that GHOSTFACE IRONMAN the other day off amazon…cant take that shit out the cd player for nothing wayne/guccci everbody been put on the back burner
CD’s sound so much better than MP3s…Are you fucking people even listening?