AV Magazines

As part of Apple Computer's last Mac World Expo press conference, the company's vice president (not its founder and unquestioned leader, Steve Jobs) Phillip Schiller announced that they would have two pricings for single songs on their wildly successful iTunes Music store. Newer and highly popular tracks would cost $1.29, with many more tracks being lowered to $0.69 per track.

The new $0.69 per track fee has been suggested to be designed to make piracy of tracks less desirable, especially with today's Generation Y audience who are more in bed with Apple's products than any generation before them.

The music on iTunes is sold as a low-resolution file (AAC), which is about one-quarter the resolution of what a consumer gets on a compact disc. Apple is trying to sell a fraction of the resolution of a standard-definition audio file, so the lower price makes it more market-competitive, as the music business absolutely refuses to step into the world of high-definition, unlike every other booming consumer electronics niche.

No word of Apple selling high-definition files was mentioned at the press conference. Companies like Music Giants sell 24-bit, 96 kHz files on their site for audiophile and media center use. These files are many times more resolute than traditional compact discs and, in some cases, have the resolution and 5.1 surround sound found on the now-defunct DVD-Audio and SACD disc formats.