If it’s all about money, then how come Universal can’t come to an agreement to participate in Pepsi’s Amazon music giveaway?  Could it be that the Universal brass are just too prickly (or just plain pricks) and that they’re the ones holding back the future, they’re the ones who are mercurial, not Steve Jobs?

Did you read the announcement?  You get POINTS!  This is why Apple ties the entertainment industry in knots, why the Cupertino company wins and the labels are putting themselves out of business.  He wanted to make it SIMPLE for the consumer, not CONFUSE HIM!  Remember when Microsoft sold music on a points system?  What, Microsoft sells music?

Not that all those Pepsi tracks were redeemed when Apple did the deal.  But at least a cap was a track, it wasn’t hard to figure out.

And it’s not impossible to figure out how to get Amazon MP3s on your iPod, you just download additional software.  Then again, there are people fearful of adding ANYTHING to their machine that isn’t integral.

So tomorrow Steve Jobs stands on a stage in Northern California and announces a state of the art movie rental service.  Rumor has it, there’s even going to be Fairplay copies of movies on DVDs, so you can rip them to your hard drive.  The movie companies get into bed with Apple, and the record companies GET OUT?  What do you think the consumer’s take on all this will be?  That the labels are right, that Steve Jobs is a scrooge, killing their business model, and they must not purchase iPods or music at the iTunes Store?

I think sale by track is economic death.  What’s killing the record labels isn’t iTunes’ 99 cents a track, but the fact that they’re SELLING by the track.  Forcing people to buy the whole album at Amazon isn’t going to save the business, as Jobs said, the alternative is stealing.  People now know they can just GET the track, suddenly they’re going to go back to the nineties and buy complete rip-off albums?

No, the game is to give the consumer MORE!  Whereas the labels always want to charge a higher price for less.  The opposite of the digital model.  For ten bucks a month you get unlimited tracks.  Or, at least the more you spend, the more you get.  THAT’S the future, not having a DRM war with your largest retailer to settle a grudge match that if the public is even aware of, they’re on the other side.

Yup, the public is with Steve Jobs and Apple, not the record companies and idiots like Justin Timberlake who will show up in any ad where someone will pay him a dollar.  All exposure is good exposure, right?  You’re still living in the nineties if you think that.  Steve Jobs isn’t doing endorsements, not advertising any products.  He’s just  making GREAT products!  His Macworld speech tomorrow won’t be televised, but every young person will know what he said, oldsters too, and if they’re curious they can watch it ON DEMAND online!

That’s the new model.  Creating something so good the public PULLS IT!  Not holding back, but making your wares available.

Don’t tell me Steve Jobs is selling hardware and the record companies are selling software.  Stop being a crybaby.  Music is the most powerful medium in the world.  You can’t listen to a computer (unless it’s got a really loud fan!)  Instead of complaining, realize partners help spread the word.  And the more partners you’ve got, the better your business.

There’s nothing wrong with the labels licensing Amazon.  The only problem is they’re not licensing A WHOLE BUNCH of new people.  Bezos and crew will do what the labels want, sell only complete albums, have variable pricing, BUT IT WON’T FIX THEIR BOTTOM LINE!  Those aren’t the issues.  Only the labels could be so stupid.

Give Steve Jobs credit for standing up to the labels.  Eventually they’ll sell DRM-free music on his store too.  After they hold back for six months or a year, teaching him a lesson.

What lesson?  That they’ll piss off their consumers and hurt their business just to evidence they’ve got some power left?

Apple doesn’t need the iTunes Store revenue.  And people will continue to buy there out of sheer convenience anyway.  When will the labels stop worrying about what the public can’t see, and start worrying about them, THE PEOPLE?

Remember when the labels held back online distribution to protect their brick and mortar retailers?  You might ask WHAT brick and mortar retailers.  Tower Records is history.  Big boxes are shrinking floorspace.  And the labels have ignored the indies, fucking them on price even though they’re the last edifice standing.  Look where this backward-looking strategy has gotten them.  Endless decreases in sales this century.  If you think these guys have a plan, if you think they can see straight, YOU’RE ignorant.  All they know is the OLD business.  Finding acts and forcing them down people’s throats, conniving and bullying to make it all happen.  Whereas the digital mantra is transparency.

The transparency here is that everybody knows the acts get ripped off, that if they get paid for the sale of music, it’s minimal.  Want to improve their image?  Then labels should say how much they pay their acts for an online download.  And make it more than single digit pennies.  Regain the consumer’s respect.  Adequately explain their business model.  But these he-men of yore won’t do this, this isn’t their style.  Which is why the Mark Zuckerbergs of the world are inheriting the earth and acts are going elsewhere, especially since THERE’S NO ONE WORKING AT THE MAJOR LABEL ANYWAY!