iTunes Just Raised its Prices. The Effects of Piracy.

          I might be a little late on this, but I went to iTunes last night to look at what was new. I saw Taylor Swift's new album "1989." I also saw that it was $12.99 and I thought "Wow, that's a little expensive for an album. Aren't they usually $9.99?" I still probably wouldn't have bought it even if it was $9.99 though (sorry Swifties). I then started scrolling down and I noticed that all of the albums were $12.99 and above. I couldn't believe that iTunes raised its prices again. Remember when songs used to be $.99 cents? Then they added another $.30 cents on and now they are $1.29 (sometimes they have discounts for $.99 and $.69). I was a bit upset and thought Apple had become too greedy. That's when I realized what was going on.

          I'll admit, I wasn't really upset that iTunes raised its prices. I pirate music anyway (#sorrynotsorry) and that means I download music off of the internet for free for all you goody two-shoes out there who are pretending not to know what piracy is. Albums don't sell nearly as much as they used to because so many people have become pirates. For example, in 2002, when the World Wide Web was still a tween, Avril Lavigne was able to sell 17,000,000 copies with her debut album Let Go. (Hello nostalgia) Flash forward to today and we see that Katy Perry, who is supposedly one of the biggest stars on the planet, could not manage to sell 3,000,000 copies of her latest album Prism. Album sales have steadily decreased over the past decade and not by a small amount either. They decrease by around 15% each year. Wow. That's a lot.

          But before someone says that this is because music is getting worse, it's actually because of pirates like me. Artists don't get the money that they deserve for their work. I'm sure by now you've heard of the saying "There's no such thing as a free lunch." The same applies here. When you take music for free, it's always going to come out of someone's paycheck. No wonder iTunes has to raise its prices. Apple is just trying to accommodate for all of the pirates out there. This creates a downward spiral effect. The higher prices become, the more people result to pirating. The more people resort to pirating, the higher prices become. Who cares, though? A lot of singers can still manage to make hundreds of millions of dollars on tours, so I'm sure a measly $12.99 won't hurt now will it? ;-)

Have a great rest of summer.