“The problem so far with the pay-per-song model from a business perspective is profits — or the lack thereof.
With as much as 70% of each sale going to the record label and the rest eaten up by surprisingly high costs for things like infrastructure and credit-card fees, sales volume must but doesn’t yet compensate. “It’s not a way to make a lot of money,” acknowledges Jobs.
No, it’s a way to help sell iPods.