Online Music Stores Change Pricing

Apple announced today that the iTunes Store would implement variable pricing of songs, which means that songs are now priced at either $.69, $.99, or $1.29. My initial reaction was to be further annoyed with iTunes (I've previously expressed my frustration with the iTunes Store -- see this post) for raising their prices, and I figured that this would be an opportunity for Amazon and Lala to gain some market share if they maintained their current pricing. Unfortunately, I discovered to my dismay that all three sites -- yes, Lala too -- had adopted similar pricing breakdowns for their mp3 stores. Upon further examination, however, I discovered that most of the music that I listen to is still priced at $.99. It seems, at least for now, that only mainstream new releases have been bumped up to $1.29. Apparently sometimes it pays to listen to more obscure music than the average human. Hopefully this isn't a sign that online music stores plan to collude and raise their prices, but I'm afraid that's exactly what it is. Oh well, there's always eMusic!