iTunes - An easy way to blow a lot of money
Written: Jan 01 '08
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Apple’s iTunes is a really convenient way of blowing a lot of money on media. By media, I mean music, movies, TV shows, and audiobooks. While the service works pretty well and offers a lot to choose from, I think the prices are a bit steep in some cases. I still appreciate the fact that it has helped to show that there is a market for legally downloading music, and people are willing to pay for what they want.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of iTunes is that you can download a single song, rather than the whole album. Songs are usually 99 cents apiece, and albums run for usually $9.99. Since most albums have 12-13 tracks, you save a couple of bucks by purchasing the whole album, if that’s what you want. If you only like one or two songs off that particular album, which is quite often the case, then you can just buy those two individual songs. It’s quite a good idea, especially for people who don’t want to shell out $15-20 on a new CD when they only know they like one song on it. You can also listen to samples of the other tracks to see if you might like them, too.
In addition to downloading music, you can also download music videos. In case you didn’t know, music videos are those things they used to show on MTV where some band makes a mini movie based around one of their songs. The videos costs $1.99, which is only twice what the song costs, and the sound quality is the same. It’s not such a bad deal.
What if you miss your favorite TV show and don’t have a DVR? You can get on iTunes and download the episode for only $1.99. That’s a good deal if you only need to get a couple of episodes, but it would be a waste of money to get a whole season’s worth. Most TV shows have 22 episodes per season, and the DVD boxed sets for most shows cost an average of $40-50. You’d spend at least $44 getting them off iTunes, when for maybe even less money you could get the DVD’s with bonus material and actually have a product you could hold in your hands.
Most movies cost $9.99, which is what you can eventually pay for a DVD after they have been out a while. The movie files aren’t very big because they are formatted for the little iPod screens, but the only benefit to having them is the portability factor. There are software tools out there that let you rip the movie off a DVD and convert it down to iPod format, but some folks think that is illegal, even if you are using your own DVD. Yeah, they think you should pay for it twice. Whatever.
You can also get audiobooks off iTunes, and they cost just about as much as if you had gone to a bookstore and bought the CD’s off the shelf. With the iPod, it at least automatically bookmarks your place in the reading, and you can also change the speed at which the book is read, so it is a little better than a CD in that regard. I still think they cost too much.
I got an iPod Nano for Christmas, along with an iTunes gift card. Prior to that, I had been on iTunes and used it to purchase a few albums from some independent artists that I wanted to support. All in all, I think this is a nice service, but I still think the prices are too high for things like movies and audiobooks.
The problem I have with paying so much for movies and audibooks is that you can’t resell them when you are done. I don’t have cable at my home, so I go through a lot of TV shows on DVD. However, I never own more than 3 or 4 box sets at a time. I get a few, watch them, then sell them back on eBay or Amazon, then use that money to get more. I can’t afford to tie up hundreds of dollars in TV shows that I probably won’t ever watch again, plus I don’t want stacks of DVD boxes all over the living room.
When you finish watching a movie or listening to an audiobook on iTunes, that’s it - You’re done. You spent a bunch of money on a digital download that only you are supposed to use. There are ways you can share these files, but that is also considered illegal. Without having some kind of tangible item you can hold in your hand after the purchase, I think they are charging way too much for these items. On top of that, they have absolutely zero resale value.
For example, one of the most popular audibooks in the country right now is Stephen Colbert’s I Am American (And So Can You). It’s 3.5 hours long and can be purchased on iTunes for $15.95. While that may seem like a lower price for an audiobook, it is because most of them are at least 6 hours long. If you go to Amazon.com, you can buy the same audiobook, brand new, for $16.49. When you place the order, which will costs you a whopping 53 cents more than iTunes, Amazon.com will actually ship you a box containing a cardboard sleeve that houses actual CD’s with the audiobook. It has pictures and everything! Furthermore, when you finish with the audibook, you can still sell the CD’s online, or give them to a friend. You can’t do that with iTunes.
By the way, if you have an audiobook on CD, you can rip it into iTunes and it won’t cost you a thing. I’ve already pulled several into mine.
Ultimately, I am an iTunes customer and I see how it has its benefits. I also see how you can waste a lot of money on here buying stuff that you can get in the real world for basically the same price. Just be careful how you spend your money, because it’s real easy and convenient to make those 99 cent songs and $9.99 movies add up to a big credit card bill at the end of the month.
Recommended:
Yes
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