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iTunes Pricing

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Hi,

I was considering buying an album from itunes until I realised just how extortionate the pricing is! I may be nissing something here but I can buy a CD from a highstreet store for £8 most of the time. How can itunes justify demanding £8 for an album when they do not have the overheads of highstreet retailers? You also do not get a CD with itunes!

Am i missing something here?
 
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I believe it's a lot cheaper in the US...

I've never bought anything from iTunes, it does seem really overpriced.
 
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Hi Dan - You might want to check walmart.com for their music downloads. I dont think they care whether you're in the UK or not. and its between 9 to 10 bucks for an album and with the exchange rate you will be paying half of what you will on itunes.
 
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Exactly so how is it justified to charge Uk users more?

Cos we already pay a stupid amount more, partly owing to the exchange rate, for just about everything we buy.

Something to do with licensing maybe?!
 
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Well the exchange rate should work in our favour! If itunes charges a US user $1 per song then we should be paying about 50p. It just seems to me that they are overcharging simply because they can?
 
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it's the same with all mac products, if you buy a macbook here, the most basic config, you'd pay £699, right? that's $1400 over in the USA. You can get a basic MacBook over there for just $1099, which is £550.

You aren't missing anything, it's just the way apple prices their stuff. They charge more because they know people will pay up. simple as.

Dave
 
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I guess its just frustrating, surely they are tryig to promote people downloading from itunes? I do on occasion for a single track but never an album. Until the prices come down I'l keep buying CD's!
 
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I just bought a new realease CD for $7.99. Most are $9.99. Nothing wrong with that, it's the convenience of buying from iTunes and having it synced to my iPod/iPhone five minutes later. Lots of other people feel the same way, it's why they are selling the millions they are.
 
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Your missing the point. It costs so much in the Uk to buy from itunes, basically the same as buying the CD. Owning the CD is certainly preferable to downloading.
 
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I don't think they get the whole exchange rate thing....

1 GBP is 2 USD or about there. So I think Dan's point is - UK consumers are being charged more than US consumers. So to say well I pay 8.00 USD for an album (that would be roughly 3.50 to 4 £ on exchange) but instead apple charges UK Consumers £8 which is equal to 15-16 USD depending on the exchange rate.

Alot of people are in fact unwilling to pay up which is why piracy of music such an issue.
 
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Is the idea to keep the prices equal across all countries so you don't get people shopping around from different locations to save money?
 
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The exchange rate should indeed work in your favor, however the VAT really does not. I understood how that piled up when you had importers, wholesalers and finally retailers in the middle.. but I wonder how it's calculated for a strictly online seller like the iTunes music store?
 
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I just realised after thinking about it that it would be hard to make prices equal across all countries. I find numbers and currencies so confusing sometimes!
 
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There may be taxes and tariffs in place you're not aware of which causes the price jump. I'm not sure why there's a difference, I would do a little more research before simply claiming Apple is gouging people in the UK.
 
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Exactly so how is it justified to charge Uk users more?
Simple, because you live in the UK! ;D

Over here in the USA, the albums are cheaper through iTunes or, better yet, the Amazon MP-3 store. I really don't know why it isn't any cheaper than the actually CD in the UK.

I do have a solution for you, though. Move to the USA! :)
 

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