In case you have not heard, the costs for buying music online suddenly became cheaper. Amazon just decreased prices of MP3's in their store by 20 cents in order to offer some top hits at 69 cents per tune. This translates into a major discount. The same 69 cent song is available at the iTunes store for $1.29.

To provide a real life context, I went on to the Amazon site and found the following hit songs offered at 69 cents each:

• Born This Way & Judas by Lady Gaga
• Just Can't Get Enough by Black Eyed Peas
• Forget You by Cee Lo Green
• Grenade by Bruno Mars
• Dynamite by Taio Cruz
• Need You Now by Lady Antebellum
• Coming Home by Diddy

The list is far from inclusive of all 69 cent offerings; many more popular songs can be found at the discounted price.

So what does this mean for iTunes? Considering that industry estimates have the online store at 70% market share, we ought to watch to see if they, in turn, make a move on price. At the time of this writing, Born This Way by Lady Gaga, was priced at $1.29 on iTunes as were many of the other songs. Hence, we are not talking small differences in price points. Considering that on average a consumer spends in the range of $45 to $100 per year on music online,  price cuts provide the ability to purchase significantly more music IF the consumer shops for better value. Will Apple respond with similar price cuts? Only time will tell.

In the meantime, competition is good for the consumer. Back in the day, brick and mortar stores touted that location, location, location were key in driving sales. Apple appears to hold this advantage online with iTunes. With that being said, given Amazon's robust shopping property and desire to increase share through significant price cuts, it might shape up to be an interesting battle or even a price war.

Are these price cuts enough to lure you away from Apple's iTunes Store? That is the question.