Isn’t this how the labels got in trouble to begin with?\u00c2\u00a0 By making customers buy an entire, overpriced CD to get the single, the only track they wanted, oftentimes the only good track on the album?<\/p>\n
Pulling acts from iTunes is akin to winning the pennant but refusing to play in the World Series because the TV network and its advertisers would be unjustly enriched.\u00c2\u00a0 Like being the world champion but not going to the Olympics because these same entities would profit and China’s image would be burnished at the athlete’s expense.\u00c2\u00a0 Is that what we’re going to see next?\u00c2\u00a0 Michael Phelps suing China for a percentage of its gross national product?\u00c2\u00a0 Since he focused the world’s eyes upon the country?<\/p>\n
iTunes was not launched as the definitive future of music acquisition but as an alternative to theft.\u00c2\u00a0 Pulling music from iTunes just incentivizes people to steal, to learn new techniques for stealing.\u00c2\u00a0 At the height of the original Napster grandmothers were downloading.\u00c2\u00a0 The key is to develop a reasonable alternative that makes stealing not worth it.\u00c2\u00a0 Raising the price is not a solution.<\/p>\n
That’s what labels want to do, raise prices at the iTunes Store.\u00c2\u00a0 Why not tell that to GM!\u00c2\u00a0 Ford and Chrysler too!\u00c2\u00a0 Why don’t we raise the price for SUVs!\u00c2\u00a0 Make more on each one!\u00c2\u00a0 Eureka, that’s the solution!\u00c2\u00a0 But at least most drivers only need and purchase one automobile.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas we’re now in the golden age of music acquisition.\u00c2\u00a0 Kids who might not have owned any music in decades past now possess thousands of cuts.\u00c2\u00a0 And believe me, they didn’t pay a buck for each.\u00c2\u00a0 And this is good, the more people music own, the more enriched their lives are.\u00c2\u00a0 Furthermore, the greater benefit to the acts’ whose tracks have been stolen.\u00c2\u00a0 File-trading kept Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and AC\/DC alive.\u00c2\u00a0 How else would kids have heard this music?\u00c2\u00a0 And now AC\/DC are going to go on the road and sell every single ticket.\u00c2\u00a0 This wouldn’t have happened without the easy, in this case free, acquisition of music online.<\/p>\n
And unlike the Eagles, AC\/DC is not a geriatric act.\u00c2\u00a0 Kids like AC\/DC.\u00c2\u00a0 To keep them off the iTunes Store is an insult to the band’s fanbase.\u00c2\u00a0 Like forcing you to go to a liquor store to buy Coke, refusing to sell it in the supermarket.\u00c2\u00a0 The Eagles may have sold millions of albums, but in the consciousness of America, their latest double album, "Long Road Out Of Eden", is an incredible stiff.\u00c2\u00a0 It had zero cultural impact.\u00c2\u00a0 Are you only interested in short term money?\u00c2\u00a0 Not the act’s good will, career and legacy?\u00c2\u00a0 Then make a deal with one retailer with a guaranteed payment.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re on a direct train to the graveyard.<\/p>\n
The Eagles are unique.\u00c2\u00a0 No one expected a new album and the band didn’t need it, they’re coasting on their hits, they can tour until they die.\u00c2\u00a0 But what if you still have an active career?\u00c2\u00a0 What if you need your music in the public consciousness?\u00c2\u00a0 What if you are still building?\u00c2\u00a0 To keep your music off the Internet is like writing a novel and refusing to publish it.\u00c2\u00a0 Believe me, kids barely know what a CD is, and they don’t want to go to a store to purchase it.\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, I do my best to never go into a retail store, it’s easier to shop online, where inventory is plentiful and one can easily find the lowest price and delivery is straight to your door.<\/p>\n
As for delivering CDs via the Internet…\u00c2\u00a0 That’s like selling typewriter ribbons via the Net.\u00c2\u00a0 Like delivering dot matrix printer ribbons.\u00c2\u00a0 Why online would we want anything but files?<\/p>\n
As for making users buy the complete album, a la Amazon…\u00c2\u00a0 This just ends up frustrating the user base, causing revolt.\u00c2\u00a0 The RIAA\/major labels are hated by the average consumer, kids know artists get shitty royalty rates, and this is because of the backlash against overpriced CDs with only one good track and the useless anti-piracy scheme known as suing file traders.<\/p>\n
Kid Rock is a career artist who is seen as an album artist.\u00c2\u00a0 He happens to have the single of the summer.\u00c2\u00a0 This is driving CD sales.\u00c2\u00a0 How often is this formula replicable?\u00c2\u00a0 If we’re lucky, we’ve got one single of the summer, and it usually can’t be predicted in advance.\u00c2\u00a0 And oftentimes, it’s by a one hit wonder.\u00c2\u00a0 And, outside of the U.S., Kid Rock’s music is available on iTunes…<\/p>\n
And then we’ve got the strange case of the Rolling Stones.\u00c2\u00a0 They sold essentially double the online singles of Pink Floyd and the Eagles, but only half the albums.\u00c2\u00a0 Could it be that the consumer is smart?\u00c2\u00a0 And knows that whereas Pink Floyd is the quintessential album act, with the Stones it’s now about the singles?\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe you’ve got to buy "Beggars Banquet", then again, when was the last time the Stones played "Parachute Woman" in concert?\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, if you want the customer to buy complete albums, you’ve got to make better albums!<\/p>\n
I’d say it’s best if music labels stopped trying to scam their way to profits.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, it’s not the consumer who’s underhanded so much as the sellers. They’re looking for endless ways to rip off their customers instead of producing music so desirable that it sells itself.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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Isn’t this how the labels got in trouble to begin with?\u00c2\u00a0 By making customers buy an entire, overpriced CD to get the single, the only track they wanted, oftentimes the only good track on the album? Pulling acts from iTunes is akin to winning the pennant but refusing to play in the World Series because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apple","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-lB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1339","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}