A donation would be a great idea, but on the other hand, then iTMS customers don't have an active hand in helping the cause. No warm and fuzzy feeling of doing something good when you download a free song. Apple doing a "subsidy" so as to keep the song price at 79p/$0.99US and pay the difference would be possible, but kinda weird. IMHO, Apple's doing a great job of holding the line when it comes to single prices (for the most part), whether it be a regular single or a charity single. Besides, isn't iTMS, well, the world's biggest music download store by a wide margin? With stores in 12 countries or so, Universal Music may find itself surprised by how the customer base, aided by a lower song price, may contribute to that 10 million pound total. After all, if Apple will give 100% of the proceeds to charity (it's already doing so for ASAP, I hear), what exactly does Universal have to lose? Aside from all the worldwide iTMS sales by not agreeing to Apple's uniform pricing terms, that is. Let Apple show the music industry that the "but we won't make enough money at that price!" argument fails to see the benefits of much higher sales at a lower price.

Don't understand the need to sell that song at higher price. Just sell the song at 99cents and all proceeds go towards the charity. I am sure Apple and Universal can afford this arrangement.

Or... duh... sell it as an "Album Only" track rather than changing the fixtd price for singles... There must be more to the story than this.

"Universal Music, the record company behind the single, is reportedly interested in coming to terms with Apple but says it can't sell the tune for less £1.49 because it needs to maximize the amount of money raised from each sale."

Too funny! And UM's contribution from the £1.49 is...?

"Other stores selling this year's rendition...include...the song's official site."

When I go there to try to buy the song, here's the message that greets me:

"Sorry. Your does not appear to be compatible. This download will only work on computers with Windows 98, ME, 2000 or XP.

"ActiveX controls are not supported - you must enable ActiveX for this download to work correctly"

And Band Aid wants Apple to cooperate? Uh, okay...

The article in The Times was a very poor piece of journalism, deliberately distorted to put Apple in a bad light.

The reporter has written at least two other anti-Apple pieces in recent months.

But whatever the failings of that journalist, the fact remains that charity records are here to stay and people are expecting to download the music.

Apple should create a new category of 'Charity Record' where 100% of the proceeds go directly from Apple to the charity and no money is allowed to pass through the hands of the artists or record companies. The minimum price should be set by the charity concerned and customers would be permitted to pay a higher price if they wished.

If they don't do something like that, they'll be in the firing line every time a new charity recording is released.

If they do it right, they'll be the obvious place for people to go with a charity record and new customers will be exposed to the iTMS.

Universal Music os trying to steal the thunder from Apple’s iTMS. They created the situation on purpose (maybe “with a little help from“ Redmond--to use a musical note). This is a clear case of Harmony-like “freedom�. Funny how when Microsoft can dictate whatever they want, everybody bends down, but now that the iTMS is established as leader, everybody is trying to “break the lock�. Weird world …
But, of course, MS has a lock mostly on consumers … Apple is taking the opposite stand, by putting constraints on the Music Industry and protecting its consumers …
I’m curious to see which will raise the most $, ASAP or Band Aid …

Please give to charity, not to bloated record labels trying to look like charity operations while they raise the price of online music, pimp for one rotten band after another, pay Clear Channel for the right to buy up consumers/serfs by the job lot, and sue filesharers who probably have a net benefit for their album sales.

Just another way for the record companies to try to get Apple to raise their prices on the iTMS. Sneeky use of "charity".

What the #@!$ are they doing? This is the biggest load of $#!% I've ever seen. Tell those bitches at Universal to go jack off!!!

Better yet--go download "We Are The Worms" from P2P:

http://www.leoslyrics.com/listlyrics.php?hid=MNq0WQkXwnc%3D

Quote

deasys wrote:
Too funny! And UM's contribution from the £1.49 is...?

Apple solved the issue by selling the song for 79p, and then donating the other 70p themselves.

That's good news in that there still aren't any exceptions to their track pricing, which surely would have been exploited by the record companies in a "well if you can make an exception for them, you can make an exception for us" kind of way.