It’s sad too, because all we want is a bit of equality in music pricing. Oh sure, we can purchase books, clothing, appliances, and pretty much anything else including a physical music CD or piece of vinyl, but electronic music is a no go. Unfortunately, Amazon never opened its stores to Australia for the purchase of MP3s. Meanwhile, a physical CD appears to sit around the $21.99 mark, so at least iTunes – the most expensive of the lot – is at cheaper on this one.īut then there’s Amazon’s MP3 store, which isn’t available in Australia, and yet at the time of writing, was selling the electronic version of the disc for $5.00.Įven with our declining dollar, $5 USD translates to just below $5.50, so that’s a saving of around $10. Telstra’s BigPond Music is a little cheaper again with $15.35, and then Google Music appears to be the best deal for $14.99. The e-store staple that is iTunes charges $16.90.

In any case, looking for the disc online has found several prices. We were buying The Glitch Mob’s “Drink the Sea,” which is a change from the regular supply of jazz and rock we normally buy, but hey, we’re into it at the moment. We’re firm believers in digital downloads having good prices, and yet we’re constantly surprised by the often high ticket price that e-tailers slap on electronically supplied music. In fact, while CD prices have dropped, it seems Australians are being charged a larger sum for the digital equivalent.Īn example of this is a CD we went shopping for recently. While you could find a disc in an American CD store for $15, its equal would cost around twice that.įast forward over a decade later and not much has changed. When this writer used to live in America – before he moved back in 1999 – CDs were a good example of an area where Australians were overcharged. We’re not going to sit here and judge why people pirate, but we suspect that if people had the opportunity to pay for goods without knowing they were being overcharged, they probably would. Overseas, though, Amazon has cut the cost of digital music, so how can you take advantage? Australians have long been charged a music tax just for living in a land far, far away from America, and while the net has brought us all closer, it still hasn’t changed the price we’re charged.

Buy digital music online