In April, soon after Apple gave labels the ability to set different prices for their songs on iTunes, every track on Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” was raised to $1.29. Some music fans complained about these price increases, and many technology executives and bloggers proclaimed that labels were making the wrong move. But while sales of individual tracks from “Dark Side of the Moon” dipped by 11%, album sales remained steady. And all sales combined generated about 12% more revenue in the six weeks after iTunes implemented variable pricing than they did in the six weeks before that.
