Why is iTunes pricing so much more than Amazon

I think the difference in price is that Itunes sells the HD version and Amazon Instant video is standard version. If you click the Amazon HD link the price is usually the same as Itunes HD. Amazon also recently made a change were you cannot download HD video with Amazon unbox. You have to use a specific tv, Roku, Tivo,or the new Kindle HD. I stopped buying videos from because of this..and the fact they don't let you use Amazon Unbox on OS X. I buy my digital music and books from Amazon, HD Movies and tv shows from Itunes.

iTunes prices are always higher, because like others have said, content distributers set their own prices. Since apple charges 30% of the sale and sales has a certain profit per sale they want to make, the cost gets passed onto the consumer. So therefore, if $20 was their price point, add 30% and it'll be $26 in iTunes. The content provider isn't going to take the hit necessairally just because Apple demands 30%. In a way, it's sort of a silent protest against the profit margin Apple takes from them.

As a content provider, there's many outlets for people to get movies from. So as a consumer, you see $5 for a movie rental and you go elsewhere where it's $2.99 or $3.99. Other providers will make more on volume with less of a percent cut while informed consumers will see Apple prices as nothing more than a tax. The content distributer won't lose anything. You still want to see the movie, so you'll find it, rent it for cheaper elsewhere and they'll still get their money.

If Apple prices were more competitive, I could see myself buying a device to play movies & the like, but it's not competitive or cost effective. This is likely why appleTV has been kept in the hobby section of apple products.

I just bought two albums off of Amazon for $10. the exact same albums would have costed $20 on iTunes. There is a definite price difference. My research has revealed that the music sources themselves charge Amazon and iTunes different prices. I do not notice any difference in quality in playback on my devices. Good question. Thanks for asking.

I would like to write few arguments. I am not claiming that those are 100% valid. Feel free to correct me, but that's what I have understood so far.

Firstly , from what I read so far, amazon and apple have different pricing policy. Apple lets the publishers define their own price and apple gets 30% of the sale, while amazon buys the content and resale it. That's what happened with the books. They buy for 14 and sell for 9,99.

Apples shop is totally different on every country. Therefore I will pay another price in USA and other price in Italy. Apple has to get into an agreement on every country and publishers have to make content available in every country. On the other hand, amazon shop is selling from UK or USA or wherever it has e-shop.

Also you have to keep in mind that, these huge companies, Sony, apple, amazon and other involved in this business may have side profits such as fighting apple, in order to sell for example more playstation 3.

Another claim should be that the movie distributors on each country, wouldn't like to kill their physical copies revenues at video clubs, hurting an entire industry.

If you could rent any 1080p movie from apple store to your Apple TV for 2 euro, while here in Greece renting the same physical blu-ray copy cost 2,4€ for a day, video clubs would face an enormous rival. Keep in mind that I must own a blu-ray player too which cost 100€. My personal opinion is that with such pricing policy they protect the physical shops they work with and in the long term they protect themselves.

On the other hand, with amazon and their business model, they may surpass this obstacle leading to lower prices.

Ok, you caught me on an over generaliztion. Not in "all" cases. It's still generally not cheaper to buy from Apple than anyone else. Apple doesn't want to hear "cheap" used in the same sentence.

For newer releases, the prices are more of the same. In the few recent movie rentals I've done, Amazon was the cheapest. Apple, and 3 of the main video streaming apps for the Xbox360 (including microsoft) wanted $4.99 for HD movie rentals. Amazon was $3.99 for the same show.

Maybe it's just hit/miss, but in general.... going to iTunes is the last place I'd look for finding a deal.

You pay what you will. If you don't like the price then go shop some where else.

Again a lot of complainers blame Apple - they are a merchant and distribute the content. These prices are likely set by the content owners - remember - Apple does not own the content - they are distributing the content. Apple gets a certain amount for providing the service function of 'serving' the goods. What ever amount Apple is getting for the service they still have to pay for the operations cost etc,. There are lots of articles on the web about iTunes, iTunes pricing, and what speculated profit Apple makes. Only Apple knows what they are making.

MJ

Was curious about this too and ended up here.

Examples of prices over here in the UK include,

Desperate Housewives Season 8- iTunes price £34.99, Amazon price £23.19,

Mad Men Season 4- iTunes price £20.99, Amazon price £10.99

Batman: The Animated Series (Volume One)- iTunes price £17.99, Amazon price £5.63

Sadly, everyone posting here is correct. Apple have no need to change their prices as they will always make a comfortable amount from iTunes sales, regardless of price.

Remember, if every person with more money than sense throws fistfulls of money at iTunes for their music, tv shows and movies, then Apple will continue to make a profit out of it.

And as someone above pointed out, it isn't as if they have cost of warehouse storage, delivery, packaging etc etc. I would hate it if it wasn't so **** smart.

Once again - as noted - you can blame the content owners - Apple is just a distributor.

Also note that Apple is a huge company with lots of share holders that do expect the compay to make a profit.

If you don't like the model then you can vote with your pocket book and spend your money else where.

MJ

As worded, your question cannot be answered because it is not correct/specific enough.

It's kinda like, "Do you still beat your wife"?

The best "correct" answer you will get in these user-to-user forums is that Apple and Amazon and the music labels/movie companies have agreed on pricing.

We're not "playing dumb".

Prices are different because prices are negotiated differently. Amazon also sells items at a loss, simply to get sales.

See

-> http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/02/01/us-amazon-shares-idUSTRE6104FD20100201

-> http://gizmodo.com/5465323/why-and-how-apple-killed-the-999-ebook

We simply asked for examples since NorthernMist seemd to be indicating that everything in iTunes was more expensive than Amazon.

Once again - as noted - you can blame the content owners - Apple is just a distributor.

If you don't like the model then you can vote with your pocket book and spend your money else where.

At the end of the day the content owners were the winners no matter which way you decided to watch the movie. You paid to watch so they made money regardless.

MJ

I have been noticing this, too, it's been a long time since anybody asked me to pay $20 for a 20-year old movie like the Princess Bride. Or $10 for the content in SD mode, whereas the DVD is selling on Amazon right now for $4.99. Maybe there are 3 reasons :

(a) Apple promises to back up and restore the content to your device if the device fails, more or less forever. Admittedly, it costs them 4c per movie to do this (2c/hr to stream NetFlix @ 2 Mbps), but nobody else is doing this.

(b) The media you are getting DOES NOT wear out, in part because of (a) Above. All other forms of media, you are really renting the content until it gets lost or worn out and scratched and starts to skip on your player

(c) The iPod/iPhone dispenses with all the storage and management hassles for DVDs and Blu-Rays and the format is far, far more compact that DVDs and Blu-Rays. You are saving space in your house!

Imagine that some company developed a movie media called "infinite fingernails" - fingernail-sized disks (or smaller) that NEVER wear out! That's part of what you're paying for when you buy content from Apple - you are paying for infinite fingernails.

Amazon is a trade company that wants to sell things and negotiates for that. iTunes is a just a host for content whereas movie makers or whatever post their content for whatever price and apple gains 30% of that amount. It's totally different situation.

Zafoddy wrote:

The price is set by the artist.

The prices of music on the iTunes Store is set by the record labels. They decide whether they want a track to sell for $.99 or $1.29. Not the artist.

I can offer an example....

For instance the tv show The River is 1.99 and with a season pass 1.89 on Amazon while on iTunes it is 2.99. Quite a difference in my book if you plan to purchase a lot of shows via iTunes as I'm about to do. They don't need to overcharge customers to make money they are doing just fine and will continue to for years to come. I can only hope they start offering better deals.

This also happens with the show Walking Dead and American Horror Story