There is a very uneasy and fragile relationship between online media giant Apple and the RIAA and MPAA membership. On the one hand, the RIAA and MPAA organizations are making money off the iTunes system that Apple has created and marketed so damn well. Apple basically pushed the music and movie industry onto the online arena to profit from it, when on their own they were just flopping around like fish out of water trying to stop the interweb from existing at all.
Apple is clearly the entity that knows what its doing online out of this bunch, and therefore they have exerted the most control in the relationship. But it was just a few months ago that the RIAA wanted to drastically increase the cost for a person to download a song from iTunes, and they wanted to introduce different price levels for different songs (iTunes has a flat 99 cents per song price strategy right now). After threats and growls and pounding of chests, Apple held the line and prevailed in the argument… and the RIAA continues to make money from Apple’s wisdom.
Now it seems the same sort of fight is spilling over with iTunes and the movie and television industry. NBC and Universal have already announced they were pulling their content off of iTunes so they can go it alone with drastically increased prices (yeah… let me know how that works out for you geniuses). But NBC isn’t he only ones who aren’t really thrilled with the current situation as illustrated by this story from IMDB:
As rumors continued to circulate that Apple is considering slashing the price it charges for video downloads on its iTunes Music Store, News Corp President and COO Peter Chernin has expressed his concern about the reported cuts. In an interview with Reuters while on business in Poland, Chernin said that he plans to discuss Apple’s pricing structures with the company but that at present he’s not engaged in a dispute with Apple — unlike NBC Universal executives who have notified Apple that they plan to remove all Universal movies and NBC television shows from the iTunes website by the end of the year. “Right now we have a perfectly good relationship with Apple,” he said. “But let me say this, we’re the ones who should determine what the fair price for our product is, not Apple.” (An NBC Universal spokesman later agreed with Chernin “without question.”) Chernin’s remarks appeared to raise new concerns about who really does control the pricing
Under normal circumstances I would totally agree with the studio here. After all… it’s THEIR content. Their movies and TV shows, and therefore they should be the ones setting the prices. BUT… Apple and iTunes are the #1 reason that piracy isn’t worse, and why these guy have found a new revenue stream. I’m convinced that if left to their own devices, these clueless studios would flounder yet again in the online world, then complain that no one will legitimately purchase their stuff online and that piracy is once again on the rise and scream that “The internet is bad” all over again.
Personally I think they should just kiss Apple’s feet for making this whole new industry work despite them and allow Apple to continue to call the shots. But maybe I’m missing something here. What do you think? Who should be the ones to set the prices for online downloads of movies?
