As per Los Angeles Times' report, variable pricing for single-song downloads from the Apple iTunes Music Store has been proposed to go into effect from April 7. In the next few weeks, the price of some of the tracks has been lowered $0.69, while the price of the most popular tracks has been increased to $1.29 with an equivalent 69 cent price point.

Even prior to the variable-pricing downloads decision, the App Store has been charging differently for fairly-homogenous, though different, products. Experts opine that the planned increase in prices amid the ongoing recession does not make much sense, more so since iTunes vie with a horde of songs that are priced at $0.

Terming the Apple iTunes move as "a PR nightmare," ex-EMI Music executive Ted Cohen said: "It is for the music industry what the AIG bonuses are for the insurance industry."

The move, in the cash-strapped times, iTunes will probably become a default choice for music-lovers when they want to buy music. Otherwise, most customers will keep using the easily-available wide array of streaming services to discover new music!

Though iTunes' services are very convenient - the songs paid for can be directly downloaded onto an iPhone or an iPod - the free or low-priced legal streaming services are available from Spotify, Imeem, Lala, and Songerize.