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Apple Threatens to Close iTunes Store Over Possible Royalty Hikes
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The question is why would this only impact Apple? It wouldn't so all the other large stores would be impacted the same and therefore prices would increase. With the digitial downloads one would expect economies of scale, but it does not seem to pan out.
Without digital downloads would this come up - the tapes and cd's were stagnating and the digitial reinvigorated the business and probably increased sales volume overall - so what do the folks in the background do - want more - more volume is not enough more per sale is what they want - greed - And we wonder how we got into this financial crisis...
Without digital downloads would this come up - the tapes and cd's were stagnating and the digitial reinvigorated the business and probably increased sales volume overall - so what do the folks in the background do - want more - more volume is not enough more per sale is what they want - greed - And we wonder how we got into this financial crisis...
profits
Apple makes little profit off the iTunes music store.. They have stated this before and remember people it is not the record companies this time it is the copyright holders of the songs that want to pad their pockets. Also it would not be in Apples best interest to close the ITMS but at least they have some guts unlike other companies and will stand up for themselves! And they need it to sell haardware.
Apple makes little profit off the iTunes music store.. They have stated this before and remember people it is not the record companies this time it is the copyright holders of the songs that want to pad their pockets. Also it would not be in Apples best interest to close the ITMS but at least they have some guts unlike other companies and will stand up for themselves! And they need it to sell haardware.
I wouldn't be so sure. Almost every time the media tries to predict what Jobs may or may not do they are dead wrong. He isn't one to generally make idle threats either.
I think this proves the opposite.
If its purpose was really just to sell hardware, they'd absorb the extra cost and continue to make their profit on iPods...
The RIAA has nothing to do with this. It's about the writers/creators/owners getting paid for their work.
These are royalties that are paid to the people who wrote the music (copyright owner), not some record label.
Having been in the music making side of the industry for many years, this is great to finally see more money go to the creators of the music we all love to listen too.
Before any of you start bashing the increase in royalty fees, I suggest you research the topic. Royalties are how the artist gets paid, not the label.
Record companies typically do not own the copyrights. (Unless of course the musician was a complete moron and sold the rights).
I highly doubt that Apple would be operating at a loss if the per track royalty went up a few pennies. Their margins can't be that tight.
I don't want to speak for him, but personally, I've been using Amazon's MP3 store since it opened and I haven't looked back.
I know that any song that I get from them is DRM-free. Sure, Apple offers some DRM-free songs, but not all. I don't waste time checking Apple first, I just go straight to Amazon.
I click on the BUY button and a few seconds later the song is in my iTunes list automatically.
Just as easy as the iTunes store and always DRM-free.
"It should be noted that this group represents the copyright holders of songs and is distinct from the record companies themselves. "
The copyright holders are almost always the writers/publishing companies of the songs not the record companies.
For example Ice Nine Publishing is the company owned by Robert Hunter. The man who wrote almost all of the Grateful Dead songs.
The money would go to people like him.
Why would they threaten to shut iTMS down then? DRM free music will play on an any iPod, so they don't have to sell the music, just the player. The iTMS store got iPods going, they don't need iTMS to stay #1 in the player department.
Exactly.. as the labels' overhead is reduced.. by not having to deliver a physical product... they should take the hit.
Yup. If cornered, Apple, just close the iTunes Store. And shut down the frikkin App Store too. You are in the business to make some money, not to lose money to opportunistic middle men and greedy lobbies (who only want to gouge you for selling content).
Just shut down the online music and app stores. Only focus on your hardware, that's where the profit comes from anyways, and just let Amazon and WalMart and other "open-market" stores to sell the music and videos. Problem solved.
Just shut down the online music and app stores. Only focus on your hardware, that's where the profit comes from anyways, and just let Amazon and WalMart and other "open-market" stores to sell the music and videos. Problem solved.
They could close down the store part of it and iTunes would end up being a 'utility' for ppl's existing music or imported music from other formats. It would still allow app store or heck they can shut that down in iTunes as well since the App store can be accessed on the iPhone.
Album prices for physical and digital are close so if anything, you'll have to buy the whole album. This seems the most likely course of action. No more pick and choose songs.
Remember this is for downloadable songs. That being the case, continue to buy the music but as the whole album.
Heck if I were SJ I would mention this as a change in a keynote speech then explain WHY "we got some great things for you today, unfortunately the greedy pigs won't let us give them to you, here's some names...."
Everyone wants to get paid, that I can understand and due to ppl only wanting one song on a whole album I can see a money loss there, which is why I see iTunes moving to Album Only sales as the most likely choice even though it might prove a sharp drop in sales.
Album prices for physical and digital are close so if anything, you'll have to buy the whole album. This seems the most likely course of action. No more pick and choose songs.
Remember this is for downloadable songs. That being the case, continue to buy the music but as the whole album.
Heck if I were SJ I would mention this as a change in a keynote speech then explain WHY "we got some great things for you today, unfortunately the greedy pigs won't let us give them to you, here's some names...."
Everyone wants to get paid, that I can understand and due to ppl only wanting one song on a whole album I can see a money loss there, which is why I see iTunes moving to Album Only sales as the most likely choice even though it might prove a sharp drop in sales.
I was thinking the same thing. That whole 99 cents/song thing has been around for it seems like a decade (since anybody sold legit music downloads). The deal is the record labels are probably making a killing off the music while the copyright holders (artists) make that piddling 9 cents/song. If Apple is barely scraping by profiting on 99 cents/song and an extra 6 cents would kill them, that means that the record labels are taking a HUGE chunk of the other 90 cents.
I wouldn't mind an increase in songs to 1.09 and albums to 10.99. I just wish they'd get more reasonable with their TV shows and movies. I'm not paying $40 for a TV series when I can't have physical DVDs to play. I don't pay that much now unless it's on Blu-ray.
Yeah, I'm sure Apple is just going roll over and stop selling music. Please... they've been waiting for an opportunity like this so they can start making some real money. Now they have somebody else to blame.
Let's take a look at this for a moment. Apple makes most of their money in hardware sales, not content. Apple will be fine. Even if people decide to go to Amazon, they are still going to put their music in an iPOD.
7 cents seems like a pretty beefy hike, but I do think copyright holders should be getting a better cut. I don't think it should come from the store profit without making adjustments. Perhaps a better distribution of the profit needs to be looked at.
Let's take a look at this for a moment. Apple makes most of their money in hardware sales, not content. Apple will be fine. Even if people decide to go to Amazon, they are still going to put their music in an iPOD.
7 cents seems like a pretty beefy hike, but I do think copyright holders should be getting a better cut. I don't think it should come from the store profit without making adjustments. Perhaps a better distribution of the profit needs to be looked at.
More money for copyright holders could come from the labels--it doesn't have to come from Apple.
(I'm kidding of course. I know the labels would never give up a penny )
Funny--I was just wondering yesterday: would Apple ever threaten to shut down the music store? Maybe so!
And whether they threaten over price increases, or over the labels' refusal to allow DRM-free sales, I say... threaten away!
(It's an idle bluff... until the point is reached where the loss isn't acceptable even in the name of iPod sales. A 5-10 cent loss per track, at these mind-boggling volumes, isn't just something you can chalk up to the marketing budget. So maybe someday Apple will have to shut down the store, and rely on other music stores to support the iPod, like Amazon--which would be a shame but not the end of the world.)
(I'm kidding of course. I know the labels would never give up a penny
)Funny--I was just wondering yesterday: would Apple ever threaten to shut down the music store? Maybe so!
And whether they threaten over price increases, or over the labels' refusal to allow DRM-free sales, I say... threaten away!
(It's an idle bluff... until the point is reached where the loss isn't acceptable even in the name of iPod sales. A 5-10 cent loss per track, at these mind-boggling volumes, isn't just something you can chalk up to the marketing budget. So maybe someday Apple will have to shut down the store, and rely on other music stores to support the iPod, like Amazon--which would be a shame but not the end of the world.)
something im not getting right when they say closing the itunes store they are talking about the shows and appstore too?
if they would take the music out i wouldn't care never have use it i have only use it for the album covers so that would be the only thing that would affect me.if they take the music the covers are gone too. but other than that i've never bought a track from itunes in all my life.
if they close it i dont think that it would affect any other apple product drastically i dont think people buys and ipod for the itunes store in fact it works all the way around. apple sells music and shows from the itunes store because of the ipod and iphone you cant get your music from itunes to another device but you can get any music from any other place to the ipod.
the ipod sells so good because is simply the best MP3 player out there(btw im not an apple fan i do like apple but i've been a pc user all my life although i do want a mac since im a web designer still i like pc's too is hard to change old habits hahaha).
know if apple close the itunes store it will hurt them very bad but i don't think the main porpuse of that statement is to say they "will" close the store not that they won't do it if the prices are raised but the porpuse of saying these is to blackmail and put pressure into the whole situation so that they won't raised prices and it will put pressure since the itunes store is the biggest internet music store
if they would take the music out i wouldn't care never have use it i have only use it for the album covers so that would be the only thing that would affect me.if they take the music the covers are gone too. but other than that i've never bought a track from itunes in all my life.
if they close it i dont think that it would affect any other apple product drastically i dont think people buys and ipod for the itunes store in fact it works all the way around. apple sells music and shows from the itunes store because of the ipod and iphone you cant get your music from itunes to another device but you can get any music from any other place to the ipod.
the ipod sells so good because is simply the best MP3 player out there(btw im not an apple fan i do like apple but i've been a pc user all my life although i do want a mac since im a web designer still i like pc's too is hard to change old habits hahaha).
know if apple close the itunes store it will hurt them very bad but i don't think the main porpuse of that statement is to say they "will" close the store not that they won't do it if the prices are raised but the porpuse of saying these is to blackmail and put pressure into the whole situation so that they won't raised prices and it will put pressure since the itunes store is the biggest internet music store
Well, I do use the iTMS, but I use the app store a lot more. I think it would be good if they closed the music store part just to prove a point. I would hope that this would be short term, but how else can you get your point across that they don't need more money.
Agree. The artists do the work, should get the increase. There is a difference between need and greed.
But they are, apparently. Back when the iTMS started, the consensus was that Apple's profit margin was only a few pennies per track. But there's no reason to expect that higher royalties would come out of the retailer's hide since it represents a higher product cost. Either the price would go up for every retailer, or the distributors would eat all or part of it, or some combination of the two. The title of this thread is deceptive. Apple is simply saying that the iTMS won't be profitable if the cost is borne by the retailers.
wow... You're, like, so cool.
...says the person with their hardware listed in their signature
