iTunes Music Store: Facelift for a corrupt industry (?!?)

elektro80

http://www.downhillbattle.org/itunes/

I recommend you all check out this site ( before Apple closes it ).

From the site "People are paying for songs on the iTunes Music Store because they think it's a good way to support musicians. But by giving musicians just a few cents from each sale, iTunes destroys a huge opportunity. Instead of creating a system that gets 100% of fans' money directly to artists-- finally possible with the internet-- iTunes takes a big step backwards. Apple calls iTunes "revolutionary" but really they're just letting record companies force the same exploitive and unfair business model onto a new medium. "

Personally I am not completely agreeing with these guys. Matters are a fair bit more complex than this. But they do make some points here.
They also have this "filesharing=good" thing going. When it comes to copyrighted works this cannot be correct. On the other hand.. I see that the rights management industry really is about ripping off both consumers AND content creators.

The downhillbattle site has a few interesting links:

These two are very interesting:

http://www.negativland.com/albini.html

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/pdf/radioissuesstatement.pdf

mosc · Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2003 7:40 am Post subject:

In the first article, they state...

elektro80 · Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2003 7:54 am Post subject:

Well, they are running a business.. and it is easy to misjudge the actual costs of the iTunes infrastructure. As far as I know old analog record stores are allowed to make a profit.. so profit is ok. Another matter is the label/artist cut.

The "better than free" slogan is a "jobism". Blame Steve Jobs for that one.

The iTunes Music Store is a great product. The GUI is very good. Another matter is wether all music webshops selling downloadable files are evil evil evil evil and.. surprise.. EVIL..?!? I do see their point about the music biz, but I do think they are mixing up too many complex issues here.

seraph · Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2003 3:54 pm Post subject:

WOW! I read "The Problem With Music" by Steve Albini.
It's scary (even if he does not say anything new)!
It makes me think that may be I would be better off growing tomatoes than pursuing a career in music Shocked

elektro80 · Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2003 4:14 pm Post subject:

That article by Steve Albini is really something.

A "career in music".. sigh... yeah.. I know. You have to kinda ignore everything else except the very music in order to survive all the shit.

mosc · Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2003 8:07 am Post subject:

I went to the downhillbattle.org site and left a message about this discussion. Here is the response I got back via email:

seraph · Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2003 9:44 am Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2003 11:22 am Post subject:

US airline pilots are already walking around with tip buckets? No?

I do not agree with them at all. Creating music is a public service and if the composers and musicians behave well..and are a little bit lucky then they might get a few bucks for food and shelter?? Right! Sure! A really great vision. These guys must be 15 year old kids on heavy medication, suffering from acute Napster withdrawal.

seraph · Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2003 1:05 pm Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2003 3:25 pm Post subject:

OK.. some of the controversy going on between the major labels, consumers, the RIAA and the content creators is really a business war that has been going on for some time now. Market trends have brought this to the surface, and "piracy" has become the big slogan for the major labels to use for fighting both consumers and content creators. I could take this further, this is really similar to what has been going on in other industries.

And the fun is not over yet:

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20030828/D7T6V1U80.html

"An alliance of online music broadcasters sued the recording industry in
federal court Wednesday, alleging major record labels have unlawfully
inflated webcasting royalty rates to keep independent operators out of the
market.

Webcaster Alliance, an organization claiming some 400 members, filed the
suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California,
claiming the major labels and the Recording Industry Association of America
have maintained a monopoly over their music.

The suit alleges the negotiations for arriving at royalty rates to broadcast
songs over the Internet violated federal antitrust laws and seeks an
injunction that would prevent the major labels from enforcing their
intellectual property rights and collecting royalty payments.

The current royalty rate for broadcasting music over the Internet is 7 cents
per performance for each listener accounted for, a rate that has kept small
webcasters from entering the market, said Ann Gabriel, president of
Webcaster Alliance.

Gabriel's organization would like to see the per performance royalties
eliminated. Instead, a flat percentage of commercial webcaster revenues,
somewhere between 3 and 5 percent, would be a fair fee to pay, she said.

The RIAA called the suit a "publicity stunt that has no merit."

"Record companies and artists have worked earnestly and diligently to
negotiate a variety of agreements with a host of new types of radio
services, including commercial and noncommercial webcasters," the RIAA said
in a statement.

The major labels have struck a variety of agreements for webcasting that go
beyond the behemoths of the industry, such as AOL, and deal with smaller
commercial and noncommercial operations.

SoundExchange, the organization that collects payments on behalf of the
music industry and artists, recently struck licensing agreements with
satellite radio stations, college Internet radio stations and background
music services that send tunes to retail stores.

---

On the Net:

http://www.riaa.com

http://www.soundexchange.com

http://www.webcasteralliance.com

http://www.8ballradio.com

"

jsampson · Joined: Aug 03, 2003 Posts: 22 Location: Massachusetts

elektro80 · Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2003 12:11 pm Post subject:

Øyvind has been distributing his music this way for quite some while now.

http://www.teks.no/oeyvind/frames/Index.htm

jsampson · Joined: Aug 03, 2003 Posts: 22 Location: Massachusetts

egw · Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2003 4:08 pm Post subject:

I think it goes further than the recording industry problems of greed and incompetence. Kids (and many adults) today think music is "free" just like all the other information freely available on the internet. If you want people to pay you have to give them something tangible, like a CD, t-shirt, or performance.

mp3s are alot like shareware already. If people really like the music they will buy the CD. Some won't, but they are a lost cause anyway, not someone the music industry should be targeting.

seraph · Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2003 11:17 pm Post subject:

I think that the "shareware approach" could not be applied with the same results all over the world. There are cultural differencies that have to be taken on account.
I do not think that this approach is very successful here in Italy, the average perception of this approach is something like: "you do not have the necessary means to make me pay for your services and I am going to screw you". It's as simple as that!
European software companies have realized this situation a long time ago: the first sequencer I bought for my Atari in 1987 was C-LAB Notator and had a hardware key, it changed its name, Notator Logic and then became Logic Audio (by Emagic) on a different platform, Mac, but the hardware key approach has never changed.
Emagic is a very successful company. Ask Dr. Lengeling (its founder) what he thinks of the "shareware approach" Very Happy

elektro80 · Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2003 1:54 am Post subject:

Good points.

I am not suggesting that the biz probs are all about just incompentence and greed. This is a structural sickness. - And as in other industries, you will get into serious trouble if you do not understand the market and your own place in the chain.

But yes.. tangible.. yes.. sure.. that is what all this is about. Feelings and experiences are tangible. That is why music is possible to sell. Great point about the lost causes. But to some artists the lost causes contain a little number of actual customers. We do have a global market these days. and I expect fringe artists.. which should be doing well to reallly suffer from this. The major acts and the major labels are in deep shit anyway because a lot of this segment has been marketed in a way which saturates the market way before the goods have actually been moved off the shelves. Video and radio basically give you the full experience of what the artist is about .. you do not have to buy the CD. This might suggest that the major labels should learn a few things about marketing. The problem is probably mainly not about competence but rather about structural problems.

jsampson · Joined: Aug 03, 2003 Posts: 22 Location: Massachusetts

I'm not going to post anything else about this or any other subject. I'm now up to 13 posted messages and that seems like an appropriate number for me to be attached to.

Oh, shoot! This makes 14.

seraph · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2003 4:13 pm Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2003 4:20 pm Post subject:

I hope jsampson is past the point of no return. I guess we have a lurking mega poster dude here now. Excellent Very Happy

Cyxeris · Joined: Oct 30, 2003 Posts: 1125 Location: Louisville, KY

mosc · Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2003 9:08 am Post subject:

Great points. Well reasoned. This statement is a gem:

elektro80 · Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2003 9:16 am Post subject:

(applause!) Cool

nothing happens · Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2003 9:43 am Post subject:

From that, er... article:

egw · Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2003 9:51 am Post subject:

Tough to do anywhere!

Interesting point about the barriers to entry.
Ideally they would be low, but would the market then be flooded with low quality music, making it difficult to find anything good?

As an aside, I don't believe there's any universal measure of "quality" there is only individual preference.

egw · Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2003 9:56 am Post subject:

Speaking of quality control, I believe that in a free and open market for music, metrics other than commercial sales could evolve. People would rely more on the advice of trusted reviewers. I would be much more likely to find what I like in "Seraph's top 100 artists" than in the Billboard top 100!