Vox Clamantis

Best Website?

For a brief shining moment, we'll have to give it to Beck's new site, beck.com, at least until something, ahem, flashier, comes along. Includes never released tracks and a few free downloads. The pressure is on, Ween. How will you respond?

Apple and Variable Pricing

In recent days Steve Jobs has shared some unpleasant words with the music industry. The industry would like a policy of variable pricing, but Jobs isn't too eager to go that route. What's going on here?

First, it's important to recognize that the record companies have a point. People do respond to prices and variable pricing can be a useful tool for maximizing profits. When Real lowered the price of their music to $0.49 per song (from $0.99), the number of downloads tripled. Of course, Real was paying $0.65 to the record companies, so the policy didn't last long. That brief experiment showed that people were very responsive to price (demand was highly elastic*) But if people respond so quickly to price changes, why would the record industry favor raising some prices? They are assuming that demand for some songs is much greater than for other songs and that quantity demanded will not change much if prices are increased (demand is inelastic, at least for some songs.)

So, if prices were raised to $1.29 (from $0.99) for the top 50 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, the price change should not change the demand for those songs, at least not very much. Profits should rise. If this is the case, why would Steve oppose such a program?

My best guess is that he's not that concerned with making much money off of iTunes. He would prefer it to remain simple and streamlined. Apple considers iTunes to be a loss leader, a way of selling more iPods and hopefully more desktops. To this end, maximizing profits may not be the ultimate goal for this product. And he's not likely to gamble with consumers' loyalty, especially when the record industry likely does not know what effect raising some prices would be. People might decide the price is too high and look for other programs or just revert to downloading music through Limewire. It will be interesting to see how Jobs responds to this pressure.

*Elasticity: If price increases (decreases) by one percent, and the quantity demanded declines (increases) by more than one percent, then demand is said to be elastic. If quantity demanded declines (increases) by less than one percent, then demand is inelastic. You can blame Marshall for this terminology.

Bring back pink

Apple is not doing so well lately. First Ed Zander, CEO of Motorola, expressed his  dislike of the Nano. Then message boards began filling with complaints about the Nano's screen. There is now a site, flawedmusicplayer.com, dedicated to this problem. More fundamentally, the svelte new ipod isn't doing that well with consumers.

It seems the white ipod, once the symbol of urban chic, has lost its flavor. The black nanos are now outselling the white 5 to 1, and in some markets 8-1, according to this article. And they are still in stock, which is a bad sign as well. When the Mini was released, they were out of stock for months. This doesn't bode well for Apple, which currently has a whole line of consumer products in iconic white.

Apple had a good thing with the Mini. Choice is good. Apple should learn from their success. Quickly.
[Update: Apparently the Nano is really popular in Jersey]

"Screw the nano."

"Screw the nano."

-- Motorola CEO Ed Zander coins the tagline for the next Rokr marketing campaign. [from Good Morning Silicon Valley]

Isn't it a little early to start talking trash after releasing such a mediocre product? The Rokr isn't the Razr after all. Also, I thought Motorola was working with Apple?

Ashlee Rising

Billboard reports that Ashlee Simpson's "Boyfriend" is rapidly rising on the charts. It debuted at number 71 on the Billboard Hot 100 but quickly moved to number 24. That was enough to garner her the greatest gainer/ sales award. What is wrong with people? Didn't they read my review? Okay, it wasn't my review exactly, but I echoed what that guy was saying. Listening to Jessica is one thing, but Ashlee?

Good Riddance?

The first single [Boyfriend] from upcoming sophomore album "I Am Me" is just more of the same rumble-seat girly music that has blended Ashlee, Lindsay and Hilary into one indistinguishable mass...''Judging by this, Simpson's sophomore slump is looking like a free fall.''
--Billboard magazine reviewer Chuck Taylor, on Ashlee Simpson's new single, ''Boyfriend'.'

Sadly, despite this, the album will likely do quite well. I think this is one area where crowds do not make great decisions. Even if a great number have "high" taste, we still end up with a disproportionate number of "stars," if we can call Ashlee that, that cluster in the "low culture" camp. As Taylor writes: "Perhaps it is time for John Shanks, whose name is branded on just about every singer's current work, to stop the assembly-line production and help today's females find singular sounds for each individual." Yep.