[mattl]

30% was the iTunes deal for apps. On iTunes songs were all 99 cents and Apple got 30 cents.

[Steko]

Iirc Apple ate the credit card fees on their cut which meant they earned a few pennies if you only bought one somg at a time.

[snuxoll]

Go buy a couple of singles off iTunes over a couple of days and see how long it takes to hit your card.

Apple has always deferred charging cards to minimize processing fees by bundling multiple purchases together.

[Steko]

I’m aware of that and don’t see how it changes what I wrote at all.

[eric-hu]

I didn’t downvote you, but I think Apple batching payments together would mean they didn’t “eat costs”. It sounds like batching could result in them turning a profit.

[mattl]

Nope. It was always the deal.

I have artist sales records predating the iPhone.

Edit: Also worth remembering that iTunes is/was/is the iTunes Music Store (itms) and that Apple sold apps via it for the click wheel iPod under the same percentages.

[Steko]

It’s pretty easy to verify that apple paid the credit card feeds from their cut, brief googling reveals many articles like this one:

https://nypost.com/2004/05/07/apple-tunes-up-price-of-hits-m...

[judge2020]

Songs were $1.29 for a long time as well. $0.99 songs seemed to be mostly for radio edits and similar.

[mattl]

That was later after iTunes plus came out (higher fidelity, no DRM in some countries)