Judge Nails RIAA

According to TechDirt, the Record Industry Association of America’s legal jihad is running into a few hurdles: lawsuits incorrectly targeted, as well as attempts to weasel out of paying its legal fees. Yesterday, a judge ruled the RIAA has to pay its legal costs. The re-affirmed decision can be found here.

While the RIAA is focused making sure consumers actually pay for music rather than using P2P services or cheap, quasi-legit services such as AllofMP3.com, another issue that continues to boil and brew is how much consumers actually want to pay for music period. According to a recent eMarketer study, the magic number – drum-roll, please – is 99 cents, which is otherwise known as the price that Steve Jobs also believes music should cost as opposed to the $1.29 a track suggested by EMI recently.

“Consumers favor keeping prices at the dollar-per-track level that Apple established when it rolled out its iTunes Music Store four years ago,” eMarketer analyst Paul Verna said. ” When Ipsos Public Affairs asked what consumers thought of the price, more than 70% of respondents rated it as either “fair” or a “bargain.” Only 19% felt that 99 cents was “too expensive.” Here’s a chart that shows how consumers feels about 99 cents.