According to many recording industry sources, the recent price hikes on iTunes haven’t been much of a benefit to the people that wanted them the most – the record labels.

Digital Music News reported that the major labels have seen a drop in both sales and profits from iTunes since the new pricing structure went into effect.  The price on most songs on iTunes jumped by 30 cents. There was supposed to be many songs that were reduced in price also, but according to many sources, the hoped for back catalog track price reductions did not materialize and any search for 69-cent songs was largely an effort in futility. This made more than a few people doubly upset as there was ample evidence of $1.29 songs and hardly any lower priced music.

The site techdirt has no love for the record labels and puts the entire blame on their poor business practices.  They state that plenty of people predicted that sales would drop with higher prices and they feel that the executives at the labels should have been able to accurately predict how much.

Techdirt has no love for the music label executives.  The following quote from their article is strong, but seems to ring true.

Sometimes when we question the motives of entertainment industry execs, people say that we’re being unfair in questioning the “intelligence” behind those moves. We’re told over and over again that industry execs are much smarter than we are, and they know better than we do. And yet, almost everything that has been predicted has come true… over and over again. The industry keeps doing things that at least make it appear that it has trouble understanding the long-term implications of almost every move it makes. Perhaps they are smart. And perhaps it’s all part of some grand plan. But, to date, the only evidence we’ve seen is that nearly every move made by the industry has backfired, and resulted in less revenue coming in, while those who predicted alternative and embraced alternative business models are finding tremendous success. At what point do we stop assuming that the legacy industry execs “are smarter” and recognize that they seem too focused on the old way of doing business to recognize how to competently change course?

So, what has happened to the buyers?  Chances are they are still downloading, but have turned to less complicated sites to get their music.

A check of Clay Aiken on iTunes shows that all of his songs have stayed at 99 cents. A fifteen minute hunt at the iTunes store did not reveal any 69 cents songs.