How does iTunes decide what price the music is, and why are they changing the prices?

Someone might correct me on this, but as I understand it Jobs said that Apple set their price based off what the Record Label charge them. Funnily enough though, it doesn’t seem to hold true if you ask me because if you compare what Apple charge for their top ten and what Amazon charge for theirs, there’s an notable difference in their prices, in favour of Amazon.

I read a blog post about this earlier on Engadget.

Since they aren’t telling anyone, it’s anyone’s guess.

At Macrumors, some Apple-watchers think the approach being taken is random, on purpose, in order to study the effect of changing prices on sales.

I think they are charging more for the more popular songs, I saw it mentioned somewhere that the record labels are charging more, but I could be wrong. So yea… you could always go to a used CD shop and get music that way, you would even be able to bargain the price. Or at borders books they have most of their CD’s for 40% off. Then their is always lime wire or TPB.

The music companies wanted variable pricing and Apple wanted DRM free music. The price iTunes charges is set by the music companies not Apple as far as I’ve gathered from their press releases.

@Lightlyseared Or maybe they just want people to think that so that they can divert the angry mobs away from themselves towards the record companies!