50% more? iTunes is a premium service. Buy songs a-la-carte at $0.99 and pay more than you would for the whole physical album. Or am I out of touch? Back when I was buying music you could get CDs for $10 or a little more, and they usually had at least 10 songs on them...
It is a lot. Record companies don't want you to buy online, they want you to prop up their traditional multi-middleman distribution schemes, so they can go on paying a artists a fraction of a percent of profit from the record sales, and only after the band's high-risk "startup loans" are repaid.
Think of all the expenses that don't have to happen when distribution goes online, and yet the price stays the same (or goes up, now you're paying for the convenience.)
A CD might have 10+ tracks on it, but it's a fixed bundle of 10+ tracks chosen by the artist, so of course the per-track cost on a CD is going to be lower than for individual tracks.
I don't really think I need to explain any more, but go ahead and look for cheap CDs online and tell me $0.99 per track is a bargain basement price. Half.com has CDs for $2.99 or less section, with many whole CDs coming in under $1. Even Best Buy has a CDs: $5.99 or less section on their website. Those are more like "bargain prices," in my opinion, and those are physical media that had to be shipped in and no doubt you pay extra to get them shipped back out, but (unless you really just wanted to have the one song) it's still cheaper.
I just went on the iTunes store and picked random albums from the front page, a few to be extra thorough, and you know what I found? Most albums are $9.99 or $12.99 with single tracks for $1.29. Maybe it's because I'm browsing "chart toppers" but after clicking through a couple of albums, I honestly don't see any songs for $0.99.
Where can you actually buy music online that is any more expensive than iTunes, if it's such a bargain?
The bargain basement part came from sound quality and being able to buy single songs. Apple's iTunes does have $.69 and $.79 songs along with bargain album prices of $6.99 (on the front page with links to cheap albums under the category headings near the bottom of the front page).
It is a lot. Record companies don't want you to buy online, they want you to prop up their traditional multi-middleman distribution schemes, so they can go on paying a artists a fraction of a percent of profit from the record sales, and only after the band's high-risk "startup loans" are repaid.
Think of all the expenses that don't have to happen when distribution goes online, and yet the price stays the same (or goes up, now you're paying for the convenience.)