Now if only Apple controlled the To Go feature, this might be a reasonable solution.

Yes, starting today, Rhapsody works on MACS!  YIPPEE!

Every dedicated music fan should have a Rhapsody account.

If only every dedicated record company made all its music available on the service.  THEN we’d be talking.

I don’t believe rental is an immediate solution.  But, there IS a business there.  I like the convenience of dialing up any track I want and being able to hear it instantly.  Of course, too many of the tracks I want to hear are not on the service…  Like half of the new Kate Bush record.  I know somebody who’s waiting to get this CD for Christmas.  I was about to tell him to get a Rhapsody account, but…

I really believe legalization of P2P is the answer to the industry’s problems.  But, as I’ve said many times before, the main problem the labels have with Internet delivery is loss of control over distribution.  In light of what they’re saying about iTunes, do you think they’re going to hand over the reins to ANOTHER company?

Just for the record here.  And not for the last time.  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not listen to all the uninformed newspaper writers and industry insiders who keep saying that content is king.  Content isn’t king, DISTRIBUTION is king.  To make it even clearer, what if you make the best record of all time and nobody can BUY IT?  No, the key is to make your wares available everywhere and get paid for what is sold.  THIS is what the major label paradigm is based upon.  The majors control physical distribution the same way they control terrestrial radio, by PAYING!  Yes, an indie can’t afford an endcap at Best Buy.  And, can’t afford to ship tonnage with extreme dating either.  But, even if the indie did this, and a retailer MOVED PRODUCT, the indie would not get paid unless the retailer needed MORE product.  Since a major has an endless supply of product, it can get paid.  As a matter of fact, historically a hit indie record would PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS!  You’d ship a million, which would go clean, and you could never get paid, because you had no new record the retailer needed and all the original records were sold before the dating EXPIRED!

SO, all this suing of P2P traders.  All this so-called defense of the artist.  All this defense of the album.  It’s SUBTERFUGE!  It’s all about not losing CONTROL!

With no physical inventory, everything can be available on the Web.  You’ve only got to store one copy.  Hell when it comes to podcasts on iTunes, Apple doesn’t even STORE the files, they’re just linked via RSS from the PROVIDER’S server.  What an amazing world we live in.  But think this through.  If there’s no physical inventory, and the retailer is not in cahoots with the major labels, EVERYBODY’S ON THE SAME LEVEL PLAYING FIELD!  In other words, the computer shows the number of downloads and Apple pays.  Because the company is never upside down, and it’s HONEST!  THAT’S why at first indies didn’t get paid as much as majors.  The majors wouldn’t sit for it.  This is how Apple kept the majors happy.  But then Microsoft said it would pay indies at the same rate as majors and Apple caved.

But it’s not about Apple anyway.  It’s about PRINCIPLE!

Leave out the intimidation.  Leave out the phony accounting.  Have the ability for the indie to be paid by an impartial, honest retailer and WHAT DOES AN ACT NEED A MAJOR FOR??

Hell, you only need a major if you want to sell MILLIONS of records.  Then again, do you want to be one of the one hit wonder jokes?  Most acts don’t.  They’d rather have careers.  The majors aren’t interested in careers.  For, if they were, they wouldn’t go after every last sale, they wouldn’t overexpose the act.

Who knows, when the majors’ deals with Apple expire, maybe pricing will go up.  But, reiterating my point, it’s irrelevant.  Because, even assuming the public will pay more, which it won’t, a small FRACTION of consumers purchase music at the iTunes Music Store.  Most steal it.  Via P2P.  But, imagine if Verizon, or another ISP collected the money.  Imagine if ANYBODY other than major-controlled companies collected and distributed the money from authorized P2P.  There’d be FAIRNESS!  This is the majors’ WORST NIGHTMARE!

So, online music has been hobbled.  Crippled.  And, the majors have been getting away with it because CD sales haven’t completely tanked.  But, after Christmas.  After NEXT Christmas.  When even six year olds have iPods.  What do you think CD sales are going to look like?  AND, where do you think all those iPod owners are going to get their music.  Statistics ALREADY tell us it isn’t gonna be at the iTunes Music Store.

Still, CD sales are not going to go to zero in even five years.  There’s always the casual music consumer.  The technological illiterate.  And this person needs Rhapsody.  It’s perfect for those who DON’T want to take the time to download P2P.  Who are AFRAID of their computers.  Rhapsody shouldn’t be sold as a SUBSTITUTE for P2P, but as a convenient ADD-ON!

But, the majors are crippling it.  Because they’re fearful it will cripple them.  Shit, I could sell Rhapsody all day long if EVERYTHING were available.  And, if they lowered the price a few bucks, it would be a slam dunk.  Hell, people pay $12.95 for SATELLITE RADIO!

Then again, how well will the Web-based service work.  That’s what Apple built its reputation on.  A seamless solution.  Unlike Microsoft, who, despite all the hype over the Xbox 360, shipped a flawed product which is crashing everywhere.  Today’s Rhapsody software looks like the Dead Sea Scrolls compared to the modern iTunes.  AND, many people feel strongly negative about the company’s flagship product, RealPlayer.  Let’s hope that Rhapsody on the Web is easy to use and works well.  I, for one, see it as a godsend.  Now, instead of having to fire up my PC, I can listen on my Mac.  Even better, I can listen on my PowerBook whenever I travel.  I can hear instantly those songs that might take me DAYS to download P2P.  There’s NO WAITING!

If only Real had the marketing dollars and savvy of Apple.

Napster blew it.  They didn’t position the product correctly.  Once again, it’s not a SUBSTITUTE for iTunes or P2P, it’s an additional SERVICE!  Which many people will subscribe to if it’s only sold properly.

Still, despite this forward movement, make no mistake, the major labels who keep saying they’re living in the present, in the digital age, are still living in the past.  Where they like it.  In a dying village that droves of people are abandoning daily.  It’s like AOL subscriptions.  They’ve been going down down down for years.  AOL tried to spiff up the service, then they finally realized it was HISTORY and moved to a Web-based solution, that looks like it might even be successful, in a Google ad-based way.  Hell, AOL saw the declining subscribership and the rise of Google and took action.  The major labels saw P2P and sued.  Pissed that everybody won’t come back where they once belonged and make all these executives fat and happy once again.