If it's the former, I'll gladly pay a bit more for my music to avoid dealing with all the headaches of DRM. If greed is involved, I think it's on the level of the record companies and not Apple. Supposedly, Steve Jobs was dead set against anything but a uniform pricing structure, but the record companies pressed the issue.
One thing seems clear: the artists aren't making as much money as they should. "Artists receive fixed residuals for music sales based on individual contracts via their respective record companies," says Max Clingerman, a music executive for MixJam Records who explains "the staggering price increases are not for the artist interest, rather intended for executive pockets."
Plus, the price increase may backfire. A recent "online behavior trend" survey of 10,000 university students conducted at the University of Arizona concluded that paying $1.29 per song has lowered 63% of the student faculty's desire to purchase music online.
The survey found that 78% of the students replied they are not committed to any specific music web site, rather affordable prices is the overall dominating factor when shopping online.
"Since music is ultimately the same wherever you buy, it doesn't make sense to pay top price at iTunes if you can get the same music for a fraction of the price elsewhere," says Richard Parker, an alumni economics student who admits he stopped buying from iTunes & Napster because of the price hikes.
