Now if only Apple controlled the To Go feature, this might be a reasonable solution.<\/p>\n
Yes, starting today, Rhapsody works on MACS!\u00c2\u00a0 YIPPEE!<\/p>\n
Every dedicated music fan should have a Rhapsody account.<\/p>\n
If only every dedicated record company made all its music available on the service.\u00c2\u00a0 THEN we’d be talking.<\/p>\n
I don’t believe rental is an immediate solution.\u00c2\u00a0 But, there IS a business there.\u00c2\u00a0 I like the convenience of dialing up any track I want and being able to hear it instantly.\u00c2\u00a0 Of course, too many of the tracks I want to hear are not on the service…\u00c2\u00a0 Like half of the new Kate Bush record.\u00c2\u00a0 I know somebody who’s waiting to get this CD for Christmas.\u00c2\u00a0 I was about to tell him to get a Rhapsody account, but…<\/p>\n
I really believe legalization of P2P is the answer to the industry’s problems.\u00c2\u00a0 But, as I’ve said many times before, the main problem the labels have with Internet delivery is loss of control over distribution.\u00c2\u00a0 In light of what they’re saying about iTunes, do you think they’re going to hand over the reins to ANOTHER company?<\/p>\n
Just for the record here.\u00c2\u00a0 And not for the last time.\u00c2\u00a0 PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not listen to all the uninformed newspaper writers and industry insiders who keep saying that content is king.\u00c2\u00a0 Content isn’t king, DISTRIBUTION is king.\u00c2\u00a0 To make it even clearer, what if you make the best record of all time and nobody can BUY IT?\u00c2\u00a0 No, the key is to make your wares available everywhere and get paid for what is sold.\u00c2\u00a0 THIS is what the major label paradigm is based upon.\u00c2\u00a0 The majors control physical distribution the same way they control terrestrial radio, by PAYING!\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, an indie can’t afford an endcap at Best Buy.\u00c2\u00a0 And, can’t afford to ship tonnage with extreme dating either.\u00c2\u00a0 But, even if the indie did this, and a retailer MOVED PRODUCT, the indie would not get paid unless the retailer needed MORE product.\u00c2\u00a0 Since a major has an endless supply of product, it can get paid.\u00c2\u00a0 As a matter of fact, historically a hit indie record would PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS!\u00c2\u00a0 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!<\/p>\n
SO, all this suing of P2P traders.\u00c2\u00a0 All this so-called defense of the artist.\u00c2\u00a0 All this defense of the album.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s SUBTERFUGE!\u00c2\u00a0 It’s all about not losing CONTROL!<\/p>\n
With no physical inventory, everything can be available on the Web.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve only got to store one copy.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 What an amazing world we live in.\u00c2\u00a0 But think this through.\u00c2\u00a0 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!\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, the computer shows the number of downloads and Apple pays.\u00c2\u00a0 Because the company is never upside down, and it’s HONEST!\u00c2\u00a0 THAT’S why at first indies didn’t get paid as much as majors.\u00c2\u00a0 The majors wouldn’t sit for it.\u00c2\u00a0 This is how Apple kept the majors happy.\u00c2\u00a0 But then Microsoft said it would pay indies at the same rate as majors and Apple caved.<\/p>\n
But it’s not about Apple anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about PRINCIPLE!<\/p>\n
Leave out the intimidation.\u00c2\u00a0 Leave out the phony accounting.\u00c2\u00a0 Have the ability for the indie to be paid by an impartial, honest retailer and WHAT DOES AN ACT NEED A MAJOR FOR??<\/p>\n
Hell, you only need a major if you want to sell MILLIONS of records.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, do you want to be one of the one hit wonder jokes?\u00c2\u00a0 Most acts don’t.\u00c2\u00a0 They’d rather have careers.\u00c2\u00a0 The majors aren’t interested in careers.\u00c2\u00a0 For, if they were, they wouldn’t go after every last sale, they wouldn’t overexpose the act.<\/p>\n
Who knows, when the majors’ deals with Apple expire, maybe pricing will go up.\u00c2\u00a0 But, reiterating my point, it’s irrelevant.\u00c2\u00a0 Because, even assuming the public will pay more, which it won’t, a small FRACTION of consumers purchase music at the iTunes Music Store.\u00c2\u00a0 Most steal it.\u00c2\u00a0 Via P2P.\u00c2\u00a0 But, imagine if Verizon, or another ISP collected the money.\u00c2\u00a0 Imagine if ANYBODY other than major-controlled companies collected and distributed the money from authorized P2P.\u00c2\u00a0 There’d be FAIRNESS!\u00c2\u00a0 This is the majors’ WORST NIGHTMARE!<\/p>\n
So, online music has been hobbled.\u00c2\u00a0 Crippled.\u00c2\u00a0 And, the majors have been getting away with it because CD sales haven’t completely tanked.\u00c2\u00a0 But, after Christmas.\u00c2\u00a0 After NEXT Christmas.\u00c2\u00a0 When even six year olds have iPods.\u00c2\u00a0 What do you think CD sales are going to look like?\u00c2\u00a0 AND, where do you think all those iPod owners are going to get their music.\u00c2\u00a0 Statistics ALREADY tell us it isn’t gonna be at the iTunes Music Store.<\/p>\n
Still, CD sales are not going to go to zero in even five years.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s always the casual music consumer.\u00c2\u00a0 The technological illiterate.\u00c2\u00a0 And this person needs Rhapsody.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s perfect for those who DON’T want to take the time to download P2P.\u00c2\u00a0 Who are AFRAID of their computers.\u00c2\u00a0 Rhapsody shouldn’t be sold as a SUBSTITUTE for P2P, but as a convenient ADD-ON!<\/p>\n
But, the majors are crippling it.\u00c2\u00a0 Because they’re fearful it will cripple them.\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, I could sell Rhapsody all day long if EVERYTHING were available.\u00c2\u00a0 And, if they lowered the price a few bucks, it would be a slam dunk.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, people pay $12.95 for SATELLITE RADIO!<\/p>\n
Then again, how well will the Web-based service work.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what Apple built its reputation on.\u00c2\u00a0 A seamless solution.\u00c2\u00a0 Unlike Microsoft, who, despite all the hype over the Xbox 360, shipped a flawed product which is crashing everywhere.\u00c2\u00a0 Today’s Rhapsody software looks like the Dead Sea Scrolls compared to the modern iTunes.\u00c2\u00a0 AND, many people feel strongly negative about the company’s flagship product, RealPlayer.\u00c2\u00a0 Let’s hope that Rhapsody on the Web is easy to use and works well.\u00c2\u00a0 I, for one, see it as a godsend.\u00c2\u00a0 Now, instead of having to fire up my PC, I can listen on my Mac.\u00c2\u00a0 Even better, I can listen on my PowerBook whenever I travel.\u00c2\u00a0 I can hear instantly those songs that might take me DAYS to download P2P.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s NO WAITING!<\/p>\n
If only Real had the marketing dollars and savvy of Apple.<\/p>\n
Napster blew it.\u00c2\u00a0 They didn’t position the product correctly.\u00c2\u00a0 Once again, it’s not a SUBSTITUTE for iTunes or P2P, it’s an additional SERVICE!\u00c2\u00a0 Which many people will subscribe to if it’s only sold properly.<\/p>\n
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.\u00c2\u00a0 Where they like it.\u00c2\u00a0 In a dying village that droves of people are abandoning daily.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like AOL subscriptions.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve been going down down down for years.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, AOL saw the declining subscribership and the rise of Google and took action.\u00c2\u00a0 The major labels saw P2P and sued.\u00c2\u00a0 Pissed that everybody won’t come back where they once belonged and make all these executives fat and happy once again.<\/p>\n
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Now if only Apple controlled the To Go feature, this might be a reasonable solution. Yes, starting today, Rhapsody works on MACS!\u00c2\u00a0 YIPPEE! Every dedicated music fan should have a Rhapsody account. If only every dedicated record company made all its music available on the service.\u00c2\u00a0 THEN we’d be talking. I don’t believe rental is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"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":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apple","category-online"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-3Y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246","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=246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}