Has 7Digital fired the next shot in the MP3 war?
The online music download store, 7digital, may have just fired the next shot in the MP3 price war with iTunes and its other competitors.
7digital is now offering cheaper music as well as serving it up DRM-free and at high bitrates.
The DRM-free tracks will work on any music player or phone, including Apple's iPod and iPhone, and recorded at 320 kbps, they are a higher quality than most other stores on the web.
"Static pricing and inferior quality formats being offered by certain online retailers is limiting consumer uptake of digital downloading," says Ben Drury, CEO at 7digital.com. "We've decided enough is enough - we are now offering MP3 album downloads from £5 giving an equivalent track price as low as 10p each."
"In the run up to Christmas, when many will get new MP3 players from Apple, Samsung, Sony and others, it's important consumers realise that they have choice when it comes to buying downloads. MP3 is the only truly universal digital format for music and we are striving hard to make our entire catalogue available as MP3," Drury said.
"The big issue now is making downloads available in a consumer-friendly, high-quality format at a reasonable price. iTunes has long been the market leader, but its reluctance to offer any kind of flexible pricing or formats other than AAC, which is far from interoperable, has left many consumers unconvinced by legal digital downloads.
"Our own sales show that, given the choice, consumers overwhelmingly choose MP3 downloads, which don't have DRM restrictions. Earlier in the year MP3s were outselling WMA and AAC by almost four to one."
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