Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Threatens to Close iTunes Store Over Possible Royalty Hikes

You know I find it extremely insulting to hear some of you guys call the songwriters "greedy pigs" who are trying to "pad their pockets".

It's called making a living.
Inflation happens and costs go up... Economy 101, get used to it.
.09 today does not buy what it did 5 years ago.

I guess you can live off the same salary you make today for the rest of your life.... I think not. :rolleyes:
 
Last Resorts??

They could probably integrate another service into iTunes if the worst came to the worst (if operation of the store no longer makes sense). Just strike up a deal with Amazon, I'm sure they could tie it all together nice and tight.
 
rjohnstone said:
I guess you can live off the same salary you make today for the rest of your life.... I think not. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

As the population grows the number of records sold per artist typically grows. It's not a fair comparison by any means.

That being said the artists have always been on the short end of the stick on this one, but get it from the people giving the short end; don't screw your potential fans or long time fans.
 
I must be old, because I still buy CDs and DVDs. I actually don't like most of the new music coming out, so I'm probably not a good example. I just can't get myself to buy DRM stuff... Videos either. I just don't like the feeling of being "stuck" with the iPods. I realize the DRM thing isn't really Apple's fault.

I also like being in control of the quality of the rips. Having a backup is nice too I guess.
 
We're talking about mechanical royalties, not performance royalties here. The publisher holds the copyright, not the artist. The artist does get 50% of the publisher's royalty check though.
 
LurchNC said:
I realize the DRM thing isn't really Apple's fault.
Click to expand...

Apple surely has perpetuated it. They are partially at fault, for sure here.

wikipedia said:
FairPlay is a digital rights management (DRM) technology created by Apple Inc., based on technology created by the company Veridisc. FairPlay is built into the QuickTime multimedia software and used by the iPhone, iPod, iTunes, and iTunes Store and the App Store. Any protected song purchased from the iTunes Store with iTunes is encoded with FairPlay. FairPlay digitally encrypts AAC audio files and prevents users from playing these files on unauthorized computers.
Click to expand...
 
granted, Apple makes money with its iTunes store - but as widespread as iTunes has become, it isn't Apples bread & butter... they're a hardware manufacturer primarily-

I suspect if running this online music-store suddenly becomes less-than-profitable for Apple, they could very well dump it. I mean, iPods & iPhones will still download & play music files - and they'll likely remain the predominant portable music players for quite some time... its just that people will have to be getting their music from somewhere else besides iTunes to put on them.

No doubt the iTunes/iPod-iPhone synergy has been good for Apples music players - but I remember they were selling well even before iTunes came along.
With this economy, you'd better believe most companies will be hacking off any part of their corporate body that's costing them more money to run than is worth.
 
Apple's Profitability!

Apple Inc. is where it is because of outstanding leadership (Steve Jobs+), they will weather the storm and come out on top. Executive management will make a decision to sustain Profitability!.
 
229dan229 said:
remember this is not just targeting itunes, it will be to everyone else too. So they would all have to put prices up, surely?
Click to expand...

Exactly. So let us say that Apple follows on their threat: they shut down iTunes and App Store. That leaves what? Amazon and other "free-format" stores to operate. But those stores would also be affected by the royalty hike, so the only way they stay in business is to jack up the prices on their customers. With a sudden price hike..... oh right, you guessed correctly.... you instantly created thousands and thousands and thousands more AARRRRR JOLLY ROGER!! If you can't afford to purchase it legally, then just pirate it. That would be the next logical conclusion.
 
motulist said:
Sounds like a bluff to me.

1) The iTunes store is way too integral to Apple's future plans. Even if the iTunes store did run at a minor loss, Apple would still think it's really important to their business plan to keep the store opened.

2) An extra 6 cents is the difference here? Apple could just pass that along to their song prices and retain the whole business they've created with the iTunes store.
Click to expand...

6 cents is over a 5% profit cut if applied to every 99c song, and it's a LOT of dollars given the volume of music that iTunes sells. It's possible that Apple run the store break even, or with a slight profit (i suspect more than slight profit) because they know people are tied to it.

Highly unlikely they'd shut it, although it is a VERY coporate attitude for a company that likes to tout it's user friendliness.

One thing about this though, the National Music Publishers' Association has picked a very VERY stupid time to try and push this through. There's a global financial crisis and they want to up their revenue? Not going to happen. Consumers want cheap and good, and though i only use it for free podcasts, that's what iTunes does.
 
9¢ to 15¢.....
Wow.... wish I could have a 63% raise this year also.

How about this? We'll give you, the artists, 1¢ more and in return you, the artists, can start giving us some good music for once.

There are way too many one hit wonders out there just looking for that one song to try and retire on.... and even those one hits don't have much replay value after they have cooled off 1 year later.
 
Mindflux said:
As the population grows the number of records sold per artist typically grows. It's not a fair comparison by any means.
Click to expand...
That is actually not true.
As the population grows, so do tastes. The highest amount of profits generated on any typical album is done so in the first year.
After that, it's a steady and in some cases, drastic decline.

Mindflux said:
That being said the artists have always been on the short end of the stick on this one, but get it from the people giving the short end; don't screw your potential fans or long time fans.
Click to expand...

Amen to that, but try and get an exec to take a pay cut.
In the end, the artist and the fan gets screwed. But put the blame where it belongs... on the labels. The artists are just trying to make a living.

Remember the old adage... don't quit your day job.
It has nothing to do with being good or bad, it has everything to do with your "cut".
Very few professional musicians actually make a living playing music. Most of us have to keep regular day jobs to pay the bills. ;)
 
AAPL stocks improved a lot today. Was -20 yesterday, now +8.15.

As for Google... -50 yesterday +32.79 today :/

It will make MILLIONS of people extremely unhappy if it closes. Jobs will loose quite a few customers...Some people only download iTunes for the Store...


:rolleyes::rolleyes:

-Sam
 
boy,oh boy. guess we won't see any drm free tracks from the 3 labels for a while. they must be extremely pissed off right now, cursing apple like crazy.
 
mrblack927 said:
+1

Real musicians do it for the fans, not the money.

I can't remember the last time I paid for music.

Torrents all the way. :)
Click to expand...

Clearly, you're not a musician.

Those guys don't play the same songs every night in bars solely for your benefit! They are either paid by the establishment, or somehow get by on tips.

Selling CD's is a good way for them to fund things like new equipment, and road shows. If it involves into a career, it's also going to take a significant amount of money, and that all comes from, you guess it... illegal bit-torrents.

Oh, wait, I mean, the other thing.

But, to support your statement, when they're allowed, some artists allow you to download their stuff. Here's a list of them:

http://www.archive.org/browse.php?collection=etree&field=/metadata/creator
 
rjohnstone said:
That is actually not true.
As the population grows, so do tastes. The highest amount of profits generated on any typical album is done so in the first year.
After that, it's a steady and in some cases, drastic decline.
Click to expand...

This is clearly NOT the case. I could make my point by naming several 'big' rap artists that are certainly in POOR taste, yet have gold or platinum records.

I'd love to be able to see some data from the early 90's and then the last 8 years in the 2000 era how fast records went to gold status. I bet you'd see the last 8 years have been EXPONENTIALLY faster.
 
Unspeaked said:
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...
Click to expand...

Not if they start losing lots of money on the iTunes store. Apple claims to be almost breaking even at the current song margin / volume.

If Apple accepts a lower margin, they will be losing money. If they pass the cost to the consumer and the volume goes down considerably, they will be losing money.

I'm not sure what the break even point is for them but I'm sure Apple will pull the plug on the iTunes store if losses reach a certain point.
 
Apple are bluffing.

They will leverage their dominance to try and force a rethink about royalty rates.
 
KindredMAC said:
9¢ to 15¢.....
Wow.... wish I could have a 63% raise this year also.

How about this? We'll give you, the artists, 1¢ more and in return you, the artists, can start giving us some good music for once.

There are way too many one hit wonders out there just looking for that one song to try and retire on.... and even those one hits don't have much replay value after they have cooled off 1 year later.
Click to expand...

Q-F-T!

Everything. Just...all of it. I'd like my college student salary to go from $800/month to $2000 a month!!

I'd also like to pay more money to crappy music. Whatever happened to artists and bands who were worth camping out for their new album?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back