[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...