Sorry, but I don’t see how you think anyone is getting screwed. What is your raw material cost to run your business? I can tell you in most industries its the 20-30 percent range.... and 30% is on the higher end. That’s not Labor, that’s not taxes, that’s not utilities, regulatory cost, etc, that’s the absolute raw materials you need to operate... cost of goods if you will. Where apple is based on the numbers I run is right in line with that.
They are charging $10 per month per user, and average user is likely to consume about $2.40 of that in content costs based on the reimbursement model of .002 per stream. (2 hours a day average listening, 30 days average per month, 3 minute average song length) that’s 24% of of their revenue dedicated to “cost of goods”. That’s not out of line at all, nor is it screwing anyone.
Apple has to pay all its labor, upkeep, infrastructure, administrative and other things out of the remainder of the funds and then sees a profit, a roughly 25% raw material cost is not remotely out of line for any business I have been involved in.
And for the trial period, that means Apple is losing $2.40 per month per user in content costs, plus all of their infrastructure and delivery costs (plus application design, development, and maintenance), as the revenue per user is zero.