If it’s all about money, then how come Universal can’t come to an agreement to participate in Pepsi’s Amazon music giveaway?\u00c2\u00a0 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?<\/p>\n
Did you read the announcement?\u00c2\u00a0 You get POINTS!\u00c2\u00a0 This is why Apple ties the entertainment industry in knots, why the Cupertino company wins and the labels are putting themselves out of business.\u00c2\u00a0 He wanted to make it SIMPLE for the consumer, not CONFUSE HIM!\u00c2\u00a0 Remember when Microsoft sold music on a points system?\u00c2\u00a0 What, Microsoft sells music?<\/p>\n
Not that all those Pepsi tracks were redeemed when Apple did the deal.\u00c2\u00a0 But at least a cap was a track, it wasn’t hard to figure out.<\/p>\n
And it’s not impossible to figure out how to get Amazon MP3s on your iPod, you just download additional software.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, there are people fearful of adding ANYTHING to their machine that isn’t integral.<\/p>\n
So tomorrow Steve Jobs stands on a stage in Northern California and announces a state of the art movie rental service.\u00c2\u00a0 Rumor has it, there’s even going to be Fairplay copies of movies on DVDs, so you can rip them to your hard drive.\u00c2\u00a0 The movie companies get into bed with Apple, and the record companies GET OUT?\u00c2\u00a0 What do you think the consumer’s take on all this will be?\u00c2\u00a0 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?<\/p>\n
I think sale by track is economic death.\u00c2\u00a0 What’s killing the record labels isn’t iTunes’ 99 cents a track, but the fact that they’re SELLING by the track.\u00c2\u00a0 Forcing people to buy the whole album at Amazon isn’t going to save the business, as Jobs said, the alternative is stealing.\u00c2\u00a0 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?<\/p>\n
No, the game is to give the consumer MORE!\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas the labels always want to charge a higher price for less.\u00c2\u00a0 The opposite of the digital model.\u00c2\u00a0 For ten bucks a month you get unlimited tracks.\u00c2\u00a0 Or, at least the more you spend, the more you get.\u00c2\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
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.\u00c2\u00a0 All exposure is good exposure, right?\u00c2\u00a0 You’re still living in the nineties if you think that.\u00c2\u00a0 Steve Jobs isn’t doing endorsements, not advertising any products.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s just\u00c2\u00a0 making GREAT products!\u00c2\u00a0 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!<\/p>\n
That’s the new model.\u00c2\u00a0 Creating something so good the public PULLS IT!\u00c2\u00a0 Not holding back, but making your wares available.<\/p>\n
Don’t tell me Steve Jobs is selling hardware and the record companies are selling software.\u00c2\u00a0 Stop being a crybaby.\u00c2\u00a0 Music is the most powerful medium in the world.\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t listen to a computer (unless it’s got a really loud fan!)\u00c2\u00a0 Instead of complaining, realize partners help spread the word.\u00c2\u00a0 And the more partners you’ve got, the better your business.<\/p>\n
There’s nothing wrong with the labels licensing Amazon.\u00c2\u00a0 The only problem is they’re not licensing A WHOLE BUNCH of new people.\u00c2\u00a0 Bezos and crew will do what the labels want, sell only complete albums, have variable pricing, BUT IT WON’T FIX THEIR BOTTOM LINE!\u00c2\u00a0 Those aren’t the issues.\u00c2\u00a0 Only the labels could be so stupid.<\/p>\n
Give Steve Jobs credit for standing up to the labels.\u00c2\u00a0 Eventually they’ll sell DRM-free music on his store too.\u00c2\u00a0 After they hold back for six months or a year, teaching him a lesson.<\/p>\n
What lesson?\u00c2\u00a0 That they’ll piss off their consumers and hurt their business just to evidence they’ve got some power left?<\/p>\n
Apple doesn’t need the iTunes Store revenue.\u00c2\u00a0 And people will continue to buy there out of sheer convenience anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 When will the labels stop worrying about what the public can’t see, and start worrying about them, THE PEOPLE?<\/p>\n
Remember when the labels held back online distribution to protect their brick and mortar retailers?\u00c2\u00a0 You might ask WHAT brick and mortar retailers.\u00c2\u00a0 Tower Records is history.\u00c2\u00a0 Big boxes are shrinking floorspace.\u00c2\u00a0 And the labels have ignored the indies, fucking them on price even though they’re the last edifice standing.\u00c2\u00a0 Look where this backward-looking strategy has gotten them.\u00c2\u00a0 Endless decreases in sales this century.\u00c2\u00a0 If you think these guys have a plan, if you think they can see straight, YOU’RE ignorant.\u00c2\u00a0 All they know is the OLD business.\u00c2\u00a0 Finding acts and forcing them down people’s throats, conniving and bullying to make it all happen.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas the digital mantra is transparency.<\/p>\n
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.\u00c2\u00a0 Want to improve their image?\u00c2\u00a0 Then labels should say how much they pay their acts for an online download.\u00c2\u00a0 And make it more than single digit pennies.\u00c2\u00a0 Regain the consumer’s respect.\u00c2\u00a0 Adequately explain their business model.\u00c2\u00a0 But these he-men of yore won’t do this, this isn’t their style.\u00c2\u00a0 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!<\/p>\n
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If it’s all about money, then how come Universal can’t come to an agreement to participate in Pepsi’s Amazon music giveaway?\u00c2\u00a0 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apple","category-music-business","category-online"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-hj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}