Apple to Start Record Label with Jay-Z and Beyonce?

[boss1]

1st

...Rolling Stone magazine in the 12/8/03 issue. The following is from the very end of the interview:..........
SJ: The remedy is to stop paying advances. .......

Wrong. I respect Steve Job's for what he does and hopefully he's learned a lot about the real working music industry since he was quoted in the statement above in 2003.

You can't just knock a system out of place until you understand the reasons why it's there in the first place and find a remedy to fill the void. The reason artist's get large advances is so they can spend money on creating demand. Promotion, touring, Radio, Press etc. Music industry services on a national scale done properly come with a price. Not just talking about the people on the receiving end here either. Don't think the greedy radio station walks away with all the money here folks. Every successful artist has a competent team of people who need to eat. Competence comes with a price.

Promotion is done and demand is created before the sale not after, and it costs money.

2nd
Many here are addressing the outcome of the story. If it's true than this or that. If it's not true etc. It hasn't happened yet and it might not. Stop and think about what parties are gaining from the story itself. And of course it's wise, smart people don't come to the negotiating table when it comes time to renew a contract empty handed.

3rd
I won't say anything regarding the complications or conflicts that would arise if this rumor was true other than there are literally hundreds of complications and hundreds of different conflicts of interest. Listing all of them and evaluating them would require a 500+ page book.

Theoretically it could happen however, all it would do is shift control from 4 major companies to 100 or so individuals, or a very few new majors (apple being one of them). I'm not going write a novel here but I will say that if you understood what I see, I work in this industry for a living, you might not be so pleased with the aftermath.

 

[MacPen]

Beyonce and Apple. This better be true. She can be the new face of Apple.

Yeah, then I'd throw up all over it. Beyonce the face of Apple... :BARF!!!!:

 

[diamond.g]

Beyonce and Apple. This better be true. She can be the new face of Apple.

*ahem* you mean legs of Apple

 

[EagerDragon]

Assuming that Apple Inc. goes this way, it would be a positive for the artists as they will not get rip-off. Apple would likely offer their music with and without DRM (.30 more). A lot of labels would cry wolf as they lose more and more artists to Apple. It would be very interesting!!!!!!!!!!!

It is just a matter of Apple wanting to go there. There is a good likelyhood that even if this rumor is false, that they at least have considered it.

Tours and other physical promotions would still occur, but they may branch out the label as a separate company wholy owned by Apple Inc and heavily promoted in iTunes.

 

[gwangung]

Way too premature...

...to say anything.

Devil is in the details, you know. What is Apple's responsibilites? If it's just financial and online stuff, then why are people complaining? If it's more, it depends on exactly who has to do what.

 

[RichardI]

Who the h@#$ cares?

 

[bbyrdhouse]

If this was a death metal band you guys would be okay but since it is rap all of you white raciest has a problem. Why don't people get over rap is here to stay and that will never change. I didn't think many kkk members bought Macs or were on this web page. This proves that 93% of whites are raciest that is a fact.

And the other 7% that you obviously fall into are jack asses

 

[boss1]

Who the h@#$ cares?

everyone who posted a reply. and more

 

[jabu31]

AHHHH GYEAH its APPLE 2 DA IZZO!!!!!!

Mmmmm this has got to be the worst mistake that could be made by apple. Ok put aside the possible business savvy that both these performers might have (seriously tries not cry from laughter). I am sure their are great at managing a record label etc. But seriously can we be looking forward to itunes being renamed the "IZZO HOUSE" with a large portion of music offered being rap.

I mean don't get me wrong i am sure that genre of music has some redeeming qualities . But its hard to justify with such emphasis on the B**** and H***. Not to forget the glorified emphasis on "BIG PIMPIN". I can see it now the itunes store turned into a "ghetto paradise" with black women objectified as sex objects. With the women wearing small pink thongs bending over and shaking that "ba donk a donk"!?!?!?! As black and white men throw bills into the girls crack.

I am sure the slogan of this rumored record label could be "Apples and hoes" or maybe "Apple bottoms" not only is it a brand but its something to tap at too"!!!!!!

Seriously I would be disgusted if this were true.

I mean this is a pretty interesting idea.But i think its the wrong people to look at for running a record label. I mean why not get like someone that is more wholesome like Mr Rogers!!!!! Ohh or maybe william shatner!!!! I mean he can be all ghetto too with his sexy tonality and voice! Heck if ya want someone ghetto just rename William Shatner as" **** Attack!"

 

[lazyrighteye]

disregarding whether you believe its true or not... would it really surprise people?

What better way to promote iTunes (and therefore iPod, iPhone) then digital only distribution of popular artists.

Now, it may piss off the record labels (which it may have pissed of Universal already), but do they have a choice but to distribute on iTunes?

And as for choice of artists... it makes sense to have young-demographic users. translation: people who are far more likely to be online.

arn

Agreed!
Despite what people may think of their music (personally, not a fan), Jay-Z and Beyonce represent what is relevant, today, in popular music. I can see many near brilliant ideas stem form such a rumor - for all the obvious reasons others (who feel the same) have posted.

But this does make me wonder (having yet read all the posts) if this infringes on Apple Records, should Apple Inc. get this involved in "the biz."

All-in-all, I think it could be a greta move for Apple, as well as the industry as a whole. Only time will tell.
Interesting, regardless.

 

[sanford]

At the time, Jay-Z was reportedly shopping this new "super label" around with the major record labels "and to Apple - who [was] very interested in doing business".

Now, [url="http://www.moli.com/p/moliview/x/detail/192140/7"]Moli.com is claiming that "an inside industry source" says that its a done deal.

If true, Steve Jobs has developed a drinking problem. Or just gone of his bean. Multi-function mobile phones? Record labels?

Jobs's Apple-resurrecting mantra was all about products that did, more or less, one or two things, but did it or them very well. (Remember killing the Newton product? Was it a limited feature computer? Was it more of a PDA, a companion to a full-fledged? Was something else entirely, like a mobile communications device hampered by the fact mobile communications was at the time far too juvenile to support it? If it couldn't be one thing or another, it couldn't stay.) He wouldn't put video in the iPod forever because he believed movies on a small screen -- even a larger, wider screen than the current video iPod -- wasn't doing movies well. Then when he does put video in the iPod, it starts and stays for a long time only TV programming; an imperfect experience but better suited by it's nature to short-term viewing on a small, square screen. Then movies come to the iTunes store, but only shortly before the Apple TV is announced -- far in advance of shipping, as a matter of fact, as if it say, Buy our movies now and you can use them in their proper space before too long -- to provide a robust movie and TV programming experience on high-quality television sets. And of course the iPod and it's dock have both S-video and composite video-out capability, iTunes/iPod video actually, surprisingly, looks good on an HDTV, and the video iPod is rather easily repository of movies but not required as the primary viewing device. When video finally came to the iPod, far behind competitors, it came in the best, most flexible form -- that is, doing it well.

So what's going on? All this diversification. I've spent quite a bit of time with iPhones and although they do many things, they do nothing particularly well. The -- what do they call it in the advertisements? Watered-down, portable, crippled? Whichever -- this same Internet on the iPhone is still the very disabled Internet it claims not to be. E-mail is fine but no finer than some competing devices. As a small-scale iPod it's good enough, but even with the quantity of music you can fit into the space available on an 8GB iPhone, the touch interface is leagues behind the current iPods scroll-wheel for ease and speed of navigation. The keyboard is difficult to use; the touch sensitivity isn't responsive enough. The camera is mediocre, even counting out it won't record video, a standard feature on camera phones. Some tasks require far too many steps to complete. (By the way, it's still the coolest piece of new technology in a long time, feels great in the hand, a paragon of miniaturization and interface design innovation, but it just does too many things to do any couple of them well by Apple standards.)

I thought the iPhone was kind of an anomaly and suffers in this iteration from their first foray into a new market, one in which perhaps they're stretching it to belong -- although the first iPod did not suffer in the same way. But now a record label? What's going on? If Apple is trying to become a Sony, I suppose I can understand trying to re-architect the company and its products, but it seems that right now even Sony is having a rough go at being a Sony. I understand, too, trying to leverage their new-found popularity and trendsetting cachet to move into more markets, but isn't there some concern that if you're levering something an ounce too heavy with a bar a tiny bit too weak, you'll break the bar you have and be back where you started when you had no lever at all? Better perhaps to keep the lever you've got, doing a few things very well rather than a lot of things just about average or worse?

 

[Counter]

So funny when a story comes up about Apple + Whatever, that Whatever gets defended immensely by the masses here.

'Hip hop is awesome though! Have you seen Jay-Z? Have you seen his car? Tell me hip-hop isn't the genre that will bring in the most $$$. This isn't a passing fad, Jesus listened to hip-hop.'

Over here ​

Now over here. ​

Now here!

Baaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh *sheep icon*

 

[eenu]

I hope Apple do this in a view to screw Universal for their recent dummy spitting from their pram. I'd like to think Apple would however maintain a healthy relationship with the other labels that are happy to sell their music at a good fixed price on iTunes.

 

[dpaanlka]

The original comparisons the Lone Deranger was making. He cites a few fairly famous examples of products and rather than reply to the actual comparisons he made, you changed the topic of each and laughed them off. He mentions the popularity of Microsoft products (referring to their quality verses Apple's), and you bring up Microsoft vs. Commodore.

I think it should have been pretty obvious what my counter-point was... that Microsoft products must have had some attractive combinations of quality/price for them to overtake the many other competitors that were around besides Apple.

Commodore wasn't the topic of the comparison, but changing means you can dodge replying to the point.

No, that was my reply.

Then again when Deranger mentioned VHS...

It was fairly obvious Deranger was referring to VHS vs. Betamax, as it's a marketing example cited on these forums often. Yet, why did you bring up film projectors? To distract us. Then you mention DVD having supplanted VHS at this point in time. Once again -- not relevant to the conversation.

I thought it was perfectly relevant.

It takes the thread into a tangent rather than focusing on his point?

Right, let's keep focused here...

Yes, and they might have chosen a different hip-hop/R&B artist had they not been lost in the flood of hype surrounding those two. You missing my point, consumer choice is directly influenced by consumer information, in the absence of knowledge, and public will choose from what they believe there is.

I guess I'm still missing your point. I don't think somehow putting every artist on the radio is reasonable at all. People don't want to hear every song only once ever in their life. I would say that a majority of people who listen to the radio as MTV and Hip-Hop dictates is people ages 14 - 25. Have you ever been to a large gathering of such people? Have you EVER heard them get excited about a song they never heard before? No, of course not. People like to get "into" certain songs that they hear a lot, and know everybody else knows. It makes parities and other forms of socializing a lot of fun.

Uh, do you have anything to back up this statement

Do you want me to back up where I live, back up that hip-hop is most popular here, or back up that alternative stations often fail?

cause you don't know where I am or what music I listen to.

"Garth Brooks" was an example of someone you almost never hear on Chicago stations, that certainly would not be accepted by most people in this area. I could have picked anybody, Garth Brooks just popped into my mind. I'm not implying that you are an avid Garth Brooks fan.

I have yet to state an opinion on this type of music in this thread.

Sure you did, when you implied that everyone listening to hip-hop or rap is a corporate controlled zombie a few lines up.

blah blah blah more posts of how offended I am you assumed to know my musical taste

Right, but this thread isn't a private conversation between me and you. I tossed into the "intended audience" everyone else in this thread that says rap is garbage solely because they don't like it.

No, I suggest the stations play a wide range of music that their listeners want, have people bring in CD's and play something no ones ever heard before, perhaps guest DJ's, ect. Rather than stick to a corporate and soft-money fueled playlist that limits public exposure to an anointed few.

This is how many college stations operate.

You're right, this is how Bradley's EDGE station works. I believe, at any given time, their audience is between zero and five. And Bradley is located in a fairly large city.

People chose IE because it was already there.

That seems like a pretty reasonable excuse to me.

It shipped on their PC. Had they needed to get a web browser first thing, many would have made a different choice. At the time when IE started shipping with Windows, Netscape was the market leading browser. Why did IE suddenly start to gain marketshare? It was already there. People were new to the internet, didn't know what choices they had. Hey, IE is here and it works well enough, let's just use this.

Also, note that Netscape was not free. You had to pay for it. Microsoft's response to this threat of another company was to ship a competitor to their product for free. It doesn't matter if Microsoft loses money on a web browser they're developing but have no revenue from if they have dollars pouring in from the Windows/Office juggernaut. But Netscape only had a couple products, Navigator not getting sales put them out of business. And once Netscape was gone, Microsoft stopped developing IE. They didn't need to. The dragon was dead: England prevails. Note: when a company does what Microsoft did with actual products (as opposed to software) it's called dumping, and it's illegal.

I have a few "unrelated and off-topic changes of subject" to respond with:

Firstly, some of what you described was a quality of IE that people liked. The fact that it was already there (no need to download on 28.8 or 33.6 modems) and that it was free.

Secondly, Microsoft didn't "stop" developing IE. By the time the original Netscape died out (at version 4.8) Internet Explorer was pretty far ahead of Netscape. Evidence of this, besides actually using the two products, can be found in the fact that Netscape 4.8 didn't simply change it's name to Mozilla (and eventually produce Firefox), but instead a major re-write and "beefing up" of Netscape/Mozilla was required before it could actually be considered competitive again.

Finally, Netscape is not actually dead. There actually is a dedicated staff still working on it. Version 9 for Mac OS X was released recently, is Intel native, and really quite nice. You can download it here: http://browser.netscape.com/

I never said the was "no reason" to choose VHS. The fact that VHS one is more than the "quality" of the product was Lone Deranger's point.

I think we're using "quality" differently. You're talking about the physical quality of the product. I'm talking about the quality added to customer's lives.

I've had to go all the way back to the beginning of this thread of conversation to get back on track now that you've taken us so far off with your baseless attacks.

Right...

 

[morespce54]

...Focus on your core business.

Which one, the Computer or the Music biz?

 

[50548]

Wow. Who said that?
It's one thing to say you don't like the music genre (which is fine), but it's another thing to tossing around your bull***** about "affirmative action" in "African American" music. So, somehow "African American" artists aren't allowed to make money and live like rockstars? Hm. Odd. Sounds like that's what, say, almost all commercialized music artists do these days.

But, who am I to argue with a fool? Go figure...

You are the one trolling here, so chill out. "African American" artists can do whatever they want, but I don't feel like accepting their racism towards others. When someone makes a videoclip showing ONLY blacks or whatever you prefer, this IS racism, period. Affirmative action is just another face of reverse discrimination, in that it gives privileges based on ethnical origins or similar stupid parameters (just like being "Aryan" for some or being "Jew" for others).

I just hate these double-standards, and the US society is great at that. So if you are not happy with it, try finding better arguments then, instead of quoting someone else's "lines of wisdom".

 

[iCe Cube]

Blacksmith is I believe Talib Kweli's record label.

I think Blacksmith is the super group composed of Kweli, Jean Grae, Hi-Tek etc...might be wrong though.

 

[tribulation]

This disgraceful and disgusting rumor better stay a RUMOR. What an utter joke. Not just the fact of them diversifying into totally crowded territory that will take significant time from their more 'important' issues that are being already so neglected, but the lack of talent they choose to debut with?

Holy mother of god. If this is true, Steve, please retire while you're ahead.

 

[sanford]

So funny when a story comes up about Apple + Whatever, that Whatever gets defended immensely by the masses here.

'Hip hop is awesome though! Have you seen Jay-Z? Have you seen his car? Tell me hip-hop isn't the genre that will bring in the most $$$. This isn't a passing fad, Jesus listened to hip-hop.'

Counter, you make me laugh (in a good way, not a you're an idiot way). here and there, I've made what I think are some considered, valid arguments against the design and usefulness of the iPhone, and especially the way in which it is sold and serviced. I've been beaten to death for these opinions in a virtual sense -- although, oddly enough, not so much on these forums.

I agree, I think Apple is getting a bit of all-over-the-map disease and although easily treated with some wise realignment of business goals, if left unchecked this ailment can be quite lethal.

For the people talking about "trashing" hip-hop because it's not to an individual's taste, I don't really like hip-hop except for a very limited selection of work from a very few artists that are often not at all what the hip-hop aficionados consider best representative of the genre. But still I don't dismiss hip-hop. It's a truly original American art form in music, much like jazz, that has spread across the world, where in different cultures it's developed its own particular attributes. Such a thing shouldn't be so readily dismissed, even though it is not much to my taste.

And someone mentioned Universal's dropping their contract with Apple, moving to an at-will model. There's no indication Universal will stop selling all of their catalog to Apple or that Apple will refuse to sell it -- this would be foolish for both parties -- but Universal is in some sort of "king-making" phase right now, and they wish to try and shift some of the business away from iTunes if they can. They're doing the same thing with high-def DVDs, being the only major American studio to exclusively support HD DVD format, while Blu-ray Disc (BD) is way out ahead in sales numbers now, even having launched later, and some analysts are already calling HD DVD dead in the water on both the media distribution and data fronts. I don't know I'd go that far just yet, but certainly BD is well on its way to becoming the high-def format "winner" -- bearing in my DVD by far remains the standard in home video media. Yet still Universal will not release their catalog on BD or even acknowledge that they might even possibly consider doing so in the future. Although they surely won't in the end, they give all appearances of trying to go down with the ship. Obstinate. Even when no one is asking they go exclusively BD, as several major studios already are, but only that they support both formats, as a few studios do.

So they're stubbornly trying to make the king out of HD DVD, and they're likely to lose that market manipulation by a wide margin. I wouldn't expect any difference in the music market. Right now there's iTunes and there's everything else. I'm not sure how great that is for the consumer myself, but right now it's the case. But we really can't put that on Apple as almost all iTunes music and video -- except for these very few "exclusives", often time-limited -- is sold on CD or one of the standard or high-def video formats, and through other online, downloadable distribution services. It's the rest of the market that can't get it together. Microsoft had the best shot with their Plays For Sure format; although still proprietary, it's available from several online music stores and supported by many digital music devices. But then they released Zune and don't even support their own Plays For Sure format, but have created an entirely new proprietary format only available through the Zune store. Besides the titanic iPod branding popularity and huge installed base, I think this business of yet another new, exclusive format for their digital player, from a company that already had a proprietary format that they called Plays for Sure of all things, has had no little part in Zune crashing so hard, so fast.

Expect Universal to keep trying to create distractions so they can fault their preferred vendors and formats to all-star status. Expect them to keep failing until they come up with something besides their all-or-nothing strategy.

 

[sanford]

You are the one trolling here, so chill out. "African American" artists can do whatever they want, but I don't feel like accepting their racism towards others. When someone makes a videoclip showing ONLY blacks or whatever you prefer, this IS racism, period. Affirmative action is just another face of reverse discrimination, in that it gives privileges based on ethnical origins or similar stupid parameters (just like being "Aryan" for some or being "Jew" for others).

I just hate these double-standards, and the US society is great at that. So if you are not happy with it, try finding better arguments then, instead of quoting someone else's "lines of wisdom".

First I think it's important to note that I don't think hip-hop's success is based on any kind of affirmative-action-like preferential bias to blacks or black culture in the States. It's truly a unique art form and a cultural phenomenon, especially with young people, all over the world amongst many, many races and cultures. It's important on that virtue alone. And this from a person who personally does not find hip-hop music, fashion or lifestyle to his taste.

What you mention about hip-hop videos devoid of any race but blacks, I can certainly see you interpret it as a kind of racism -- although take a look around and you'll see plenty of video entertainment showing only whites without having intent of anti-black bias. But it's not traditional racism as we know it in this country. And it doesn't mean the black hip-hop artist with only blacks in his music videos hates whites, or considers whites inferior to blacks, or any such thing. It's just the sort of latitude afforded a racial population that took it on the chin for many, many years in the States, and is seen as having the at least temporary right to show preferential bias to their own race in hiring, etc., for projects they control. It is, as you allude to, informal affirmative action.

You can make the argument that affirmative action doesn't work and I'd disagree with you. I think affirmative action has done and continues to do some good in stabilizing black culture within our national culture. Is it working well? I don't think so; I don't think it ever has. Part of the problem is that no matter how progressive an individual thinks he is, it's part of the human condition to be biased toward people who are like you or are like what you wish to be, and biased against people who are not, who are different. People will always make distinctions based on race and in mixed-race societies this will always cause at least some strife. The big problem for the States is putting blacks on an equal footing with whites in access and opportunity. And they have not been, are not now, and I can't see they will be in the future or how we'd get that done. So stop-gaps like formal and informal affirmative action are going to continue, because, perhaps lamentably, they are the best way we have to create a more equal playing field in a society and economy that is very rough on anyone who doesn't get an equal start. And if the parents don't get that fair start, their children lose, too, and then their children's children lose: it never ends. This concept is nothing new.

 

[netdoc66]

You are the one trolling here, so chill out. "African American" artists can do whatever they want, but I don't feel like accepting their racism towards others. When someone makes a videoclip showing ONLY blacks or whatever you prefer, this IS racism, period. Affirmative action is just another face of reverse discrimination, in that it gives privileges based on ethnical origins or similar stupid parameters (just like being "Aryan" for some or being "Jew" for others).

I just hate these double-standards, and the US society is great at that. So if you are not happy with it, try finding better arguments then, instead of quoting someone else's "lines of wisdom".

You're a funny guy. I like how you put quotes around African American. It's cute. As for affirmative action, there would probably be a lot less Black people in good jobs. When you say "reverse discrimination" how can that be? Blacks would be shut out with people like you to determine who gets the job.

What's the comment about only Blacks being in a video clip? If you flip the concept every movie with whites and only whites in it is racist as well. Is that what you're saying? I hope you aren't really a lawyer. Your clients should be afraid, very afraid.

Apple is coming to the hood son. Holla at cha boy!

 

[killerrobot]

I never realized that Apple had all the recording experience necessary to get a record label off the ground.
Even if Jay-Z and Beyonce do, better hope they never split up -- or did they already? I can't keep those stars lives straight anymore.

 

[50548]

You're a funny guy. I like how you put quotes around African American. It's cute. As for affirmative action, there would probably be a lot less Black people in good jobs. When you say "reverse discrimination" how can that be? Blacks would be shut out with people like you to determine who gets the job.

What's the comment about only Blacks being in a video clip? If you flip the concept every movie with whites and only whites in it is racist as well. Is that what you're saying? I hope you aren't really a lawyer. Your clients should be afraid, very afraid.

Apple is coming to the hood son. Holla at cha boy!

Simple fact: you don't fight racism with more racism. It is CLEAR that "blacks-only" clips are artificially created to give you the impression that "oh, we are reacting", even though most of us (people born after the 60s)wouldn't care about giving a black, purple, white or yellow person a job, as long as he/she has the MERITS, NOT color.

And who is black in your view? Someone with dark hair and 10% of African genes, or just the ones above 20%? Sorry, this is no less racist than what Nazis or Zionists do, regardless of any other trolling arguments you have in your mind.

As for the previous poster, thanks for the sensible reply; you make some good points, although I would argue with you for a long time on the legality and correctness of affirmative action. Thanks anyway.

 

[appledrummer]

please search your heart out for a song with these motifs. esp. a jay z or beyonce one. then get back to me.

http://www.songlyrics.com/song-lyrics/Jay_Z/Miscellaneous/Big_Pimpin/196630.html

 

[Evangelion]

So Apple is partnering with a dumb-ass rapper. And is Beyonce one of those "singers" who'se idea if singing is "howling in to the microphone"?

Great, just ***** great. Hey Apple: How about partnering with some decent artists, instead of crud?