Apple has been actively against DRM for some time now. If you want to blame someone, blame the record companies.
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Apple Threatens to Close iTunes Store Over Possible Royalty Hikes
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I wouldn't resort to piracy, but I'd probably stop buying music altogether.
As a casual music listener, I buy all of my music through iTunes: it's simply too much trouble and too expensive to buy physical CDs, and in the absence of an iTunes store, I doubt I could be bothered enough to find an alternative online supplier.
The same could be said of photocopying bank notes..
Me too, but I think deep down almost every person downloading stuff knows it's not the right thing to do. I've done it myself with films and I knew it was wrong really so stopped and felt better about myself. I acknowledge that not all downloads would have been sales, but I was responding to some of the posts on this forum which have said quite clearly 'if they do this I'll switch to torrents'.
Is $10-$15 a ridiculous amount of money? Back in the 80s I used to pay 2-3 times that in real terms (once inflation's taken into account) for a piece of vinyl. I personally think records are totally underpriced when you compare them to say video games, and see no justification for calling them overpriced. We nick 95% of the downloads we make, when we do pay we pay a third of what we used to, and then we have the gall to complain 'there's no good music any more' - is it any wonder?
Yes record companies haven't got the best reputation due to some pushing it far too far and ripping off artists, but if artists have brains (and a lawyer) that doesn't have to be the case at all -and for the labels in the end it's an incredibly high-risk industry (9/10 signed acts lose money for a label) and labels need to be compensated for that risk somehow.
I must ask you once again. Why are you so serious?--))) Just kidding ya know!--)))
Perhaps this would be a good thing as Apple would get back to concentrating on computers again--))))
I can see the flames from here!
An iTunes artist weighs in
Hey Mac Faithful,
Had to comment on this thread.
First of all, as an independent artist with CDBaby, my band gets $.65 per song and $6.50 per album download from iTunes. That's because as independents, we own ALL rights--song, recording, publishing, the whole enchilada.
No, we have not become wealthy doing this. In fact, we've probably spent $5 for every $1 we've made. It took months of hard work and thousands of dollars to do our last album.
You can imagine how absolutely immature and callous it seems for me to hear that thieves will just steal that work for free. "Anyone with a computer can make music". Sure, and anyone who buys $100 worth of oil paints can produce the Mona Lisa.
What a complete lack of honor or self-respect. Our society seems to be producing a generation of moral cretins.
I went to just ONE bit-torrent site and found our album. 600+ unauthorized downloads. If even 1/10th of those people would have bought it legally, we would have recouped $390 in net profit, $3900 if all would have bought it legally. That would have just covered our studio tab.
You do not have the right to own anything your ears can hear or your computer can discover. Songs belong to the people who wrote them, who grant you the rights to share in their art under very specific conditions. If you don't like the conditions, don't buy it. Get a guitar. Record your own if it is so d@mn easy.
People make the RIAA out like its the Gestapo. Don't steal stuff that isn't yours and they'll never bother you. If someone stole the mower out of your garage and used it without your permission, and the cops gave chase, would you say "D@mn cops! Why are they going after mower-borrowers?" NO. You'd be very appreciative if they were working to protect you from criminals. And criminals is PRECISELY the correct term for people who steal the intellectual property of others.
"Record labels are so rich...pop stars are so rich...greedy execs are so rich..." What class-envy claptrap. Grow a pair and stop whining. Listen to free samples and reviews--then buy what you like and don't buy what you think sucks. How hard is that? It's sad that the RIAA even HAS to threaten people to do what is ethically and morally right.
I love iTunes. Apple appeals to the "karma" of their customers by asking them not to steal music, then provide an extremely easy way to get music legally. I hate DRM, as it is largely futile, but I can understand the impulse to want to protect intellectual property from thieves.
As far as the price increase goes, the basic $.99/song pricing cannot last forever. Yes, technology increases reduce overhead, which offsets inflation, but can that continue? $1.09/10.99 doesn't sound as sexy, but it is hardly a terrible increase.
As far as bitrates go, a lot of nonsense gets bandied about. For listening with earbuds, current iTunes bitrates are already quality overkill. Some of you have never had to use a cassette Walkman. Wow, flutter, and tape hiss galore. The modern mp3 player is a miracle. Unless you have audiophile speakers, 128kb/sec is more than fine.
Hey Mac Faithful,
Had to comment on this thread.
First of all, as an independent artist with CDBaby, my band gets $.65 per song and $6.50 per album download from iTunes. That's because as independents, we own ALL rights--song, recording, publishing, the whole enchilada.
No, we have not become wealthy doing this. In fact, we've probably spent $5 for every $1 we've made. It took months of hard work and thousands of dollars to do our last album.
You can imagine how absolutely immature and callous it seems for me to hear that thieves will just steal that work for free. "Anyone with a computer can make music". Sure, and anyone who buys $100 worth of oil paints can produce the Mona Lisa.
What a complete lack of honor or self-respect. Our society seems to be producing a generation of moral cretins.
I went to just ONE bit-torrent site and found our album. 600+ unauthorized downloads. If even 1/10th of those people would have bought it legally, we would have recouped $390 in net profit, $3900 if all would have bought it legally. That would have just covered our studio tab.
You do not have the right to own anything your ears can hear or your computer can discover. Songs belong to the people who wrote them, who grant you the rights to share in their art under very specific conditions. If you don't like the conditions, don't buy it. Get a guitar. Record your own if it is so d@mn easy.
People make the RIAA out like its the Gestapo. Don't steal stuff that isn't yours and they'll never bother you. If someone stole the mower out of your garage and used it without your permission, and the cops gave chase, would you say "D@mn cops! Why are they going after mower-borrowers?" NO. You'd be very appreciative if they were working to protect you from criminals. And criminals is PRECISELY the correct term for people who steal the intellectual property of others.
"Record labels are so rich...pop stars are so rich...greedy execs are so rich..." What class-envy claptrap. Grow a pair and stop whining. Listen to free samples and reviews--then buy what you like and don't buy what you think sucks. How hard is that? It's sad that the RIAA even HAS to threaten people to do what is ethically and morally right.
I love iTunes. Apple appeals to the "karma" of their customers by asking them not to steal music, then provide an extremely easy way to get music legally. I hate DRM, as it is largely futile, but I can understand the impulse to want to protect intellectual property from thieves.
As far as the price increase goes, the basic $.99/song pricing cannot last forever. Yes, technology increases reduce overhead, which offsets inflation, but can that continue? $1.09/10.99 doesn't sound as sexy, but it is hardly a terrible increase.
As far as bitrates go, a lot of nonsense gets bandied about. For listening with earbuds, current iTunes bitrates are already quality overkill. Some of you have never had to use a cassette Walkman. Wow, flutter, and tape hiss galore. The modern mp3 player is a miracle. Unless you have audiophile speakers, 128kb/sec is more than fine.
in an age of piracy sales of $0.09 are better than no sales at all. but $0.15 is better . But if these musicians were true artists they simply share their work with the world regardless of personal gain. then again these are the copyright people not the artists themselves.
. But if these musicians were true artists they simply share their work with the world regardless of personal gain. then again these are the copyright people not the artists themselves.
I can pay £1 for a cd, £1.50 for a double CD album at my library, for a weeks rent, I can then enjoy it, copy to iTunes. And keep it.
If the album is something I really like and plan on even putting on the iPhone I purchase said album from HMV.
iTunes is the last place I would buy my music from anyways.
If the album is something I really like and plan on even putting on the iPhone I purchase said album from HMV.
iTunes is the last place I would buy my music from anyways.
The problem is that increasing the price will drive sales down and you start losing lots of money (if the margins are the same) if you were only breaking even before.
Apple no longer needs the iTunes store for music in order to be a success. If Apple starts losing a lot of money on the music portion of the iTunes store, I do expect them to stop selling music.
If Apple is breaking even on the iTunes store, how does it make them greedy buggers ?
Personally, I think $.99 is too much. Now that I think about it, $.15 sounds about right. If we assume for a minute that at $.15/song Apple would be making zero profit, that means their costs are $.99-$.15=$.84/song. By the amount of p2p sharing, it is obvious that people can distribute music for a lot less than $.84 since p2p is free. So it follows that I should be able to download music by p2p then pay the $.15/song royalties directly, cutting out the middleman (Apple). Why hasn't anyone started a $.15/song bittorrent site yet? (or maybe $.20/song to let them make a profit.) It would be 100% legal, it would put huge pressure on iTunes/Amazon to lower their per-song prices, and it would encourage people to buy more songs (which is what the RIAA and artists want, right?). A $.15/song music store would probably even discourage illegal p2p downloads.
Welcome to what Australia has to pay, we pay, standard, $1.79 AU PER SONG ON ALL MUSIC STORES (ITUNES INCLUDED)!! Thats $1.41 in US dollars! So I hardy think an increase of 9c US - 15c US will hurt anyone because Australians already pay more, even if the price hike goes ahead.
Irrelevant
the NBC example is irrelevant... That's like if 1 record company said it wanted increased prices then threatens to leave. This is an increase for all music. If iTunes left it wouldn't matter it would just make yahoo music/rhapsody and amazon.com bigger. And DRM free!!! Wow! I hope iTunes closes.
the NBC example is irrelevant... That's like if 1 record company said it wanted increased prices then threatens to leave. This is an increase for all music. If iTunes left it wouldn't matter it would just make yahoo music/rhapsody and amazon.com bigger. And DRM free!!! Wow! I hope iTunes closes.
Ain't never gonna happen
This is an empty threat, too much investment and what are they going to next, stop making iPods. bulls**t.
To all those who think Apple make 'virtually nothing' on iTunes sales, read the quote "Apple has repeatedly made it clear that it is in this business to make money, and most likely would not continue to operate [the iTunes music store] if it were no longer possible to do so profitably."
They make a profit, it isn't a love, karma or any other fuzzy thing the maczealots would have you believe.
As with all monopolies, they exist for their own ends.
The artist is always last when it comes to divvying up. I don't think it's unreasonable for the person who actually made the music to get a fair share.
This is an empty threat, too much investment and what are they going to next, stop making iPods. bulls**t.
To all those who think Apple make 'virtually nothing' on iTunes sales, read the quote "Apple has repeatedly made it clear that it is in this business to make money, and most likely would not continue to operate [the iTunes music store] if it were no longer possible to do so profitably."
They make a profit, it isn't a love, karma or any other fuzzy thing the maczealots would have you believe.
As with all monopolies, they exist for their own ends.
The artist is always last when it comes to divvying up. I don't think it's unreasonable for the person who actually made the music to get a fair share.
If they end up raising the price of the music from iTunes, i just hope they increase the quality of the files. I love to preview, find new music on iTunes but unless it's iTunes plus, i won't buy it. If i really love a particular cd, i will go to the Virgin Records store and buy the actual cd.