Music Labels Wary of Apple?

[prutz11]

The article claims that the five main record labels are become scared of Apple and it's success in the digital music arena. One source compares it to the rise of MTV:

Isn't MTV controlled by the labels? I thought they got to put videos in the running for TRL?

 

[thatwendigo]

...but not everyone has that kind of name recognition. There is absolutely no way for an artist to get on the radio if they do not have a deal with a major label. New artists need promotion. The radio may be terrible, but it's popular. You sell albums (and the hit) by getting a hit on the top 40 stations. There's an incredible series of pieces at salon.com about media consolidation (esp. Clear Channel) and the record industry. Check that out sometime.

There's a single reason why this is true, I hope you realize, and it's the one that's trembling because a technological freight train is about to pile it into the ground. Without the record industry to be buying all their airtime for their chosen few, independent artists would have more of a chance than they do now.

Of course there can't be name recognition... as long as the industry still holds the purse strings.

 

[Trimix]

the music industry is so full of sh*t, it's unbelievable..!!!

vSpacken

it is not the music industry, it is the independent - that paper su***

 

[jaw04005]

My U.S. Senator (or more likely her staff) sent me an email this morning stating...

"Due to widespread confusion over copyright infringement in the digital
age, I am troubled by the Recording Industry Association of America's
(RIAA) efforts to prosecute the thousands of Americans who currently
utilize peer-to-peer file sharing software. Many citizens lawfully
purchase DVDs, CDs, or other media clips and take advantage of the
Internet to share their personal property with friends or family."

This is the fourth email I have received from her office regarding the RIAA. Not all pollitians believe what the RIAA is doing is fair, and their is legislation moving through Congress (slowly) to limit the power of the DMCA. We will see if it actually goes through.

 

[whooleytoo]

...but not everyone has that kind of name recognition. There is absolutely no way for an artist to get on the radio if they do not have a deal with a major label. New artists need promotion. The radio may be terrible, but it's popular. You sell albums (and the hit) by getting a hit on the top 40 stations. There's an incredible series of pieces at salon.com about media consolidation (esp. Clear Channel) and the record industry. Check that out sometime.

But perhaps iTunes may change that.

Perhaps now, people will start finding music more through browsing iTunes genres, "people who bought this also bought.." links and iMixes. The process of finding music on iTMS, buying it, and listening to it is a lot more convenient than hearing a song on radio, trying to find it's name, then going looking for the album on the internet or in a shop.

 

[abc123]

Record companies need to open up their eyes and realise a couple of facts.

1. Suing customers isn’t good for business. Illegal music downloading is becoming a form of civil disobedience. Everyone knows someone who knows someone who got done for file sharing, record companies are the enemy and you don’t do business with the devil.

2. Downloading music is an alternative to buying records and cds. Up until now the average person has been ripped off so badly when it comes to music. As a fan of a band I’d love to own every song I can get my hands on, I am interested in the choice of cover art and enjoy flipping though the insert, reading linear notes, lyrics and the band’s thank yous. However, as a fan of general music, in reality I might only be interested in a few tracks from a large number of different artists. This is where I believe the record companies problem with itunes really lies. When you buy a cd usually you get about 10-15 tracks, the few standouts that attracted you to the product, some that are average and then a few that were just thrown in to boost the total number and make paying AU$30 for the finished product seem like okay value. Itunes lets consumers pay only for the decent tracks or the ones that they want, so now when you hear a song that you really enjoy and want to listen to more you don’t have to splash out and spend a lot of money on an entire album, you can spent a tiny 99 cents. I don’t know exactly how much a cd costs in America, let’s say it is $15, the difference between 99c and $15 is a significant amount. Even if you buy the four or however many stand out tracks there are on the album the record company is still out of pocket.

They should be grateful that they were able to get away with it for so long. People are sick of it and now that we've seen online music stores like itunes we know that we don't have to put up with it any longer. It is either get on board with itunes or watch the peer to peer file sharing networks grow even larger.

 

[Piker]

I hate record companies

Why would record companies possibly be afraid of this revolution? Apple is distributing the music produced by these companies with almost NO production cost (no cd's, cases, inserts, printing, etc.) and for only a slightly lower cost per song than it costs to go to the store and buy the album. Were they hoping they could get MORE money for songs online? Thinking about the pure greed and evil of these record companies and executives just makes me want to start punching things, preferrably them. Would they rather people just continue to steal from them, so they can continue to sue children and proliferate their negative public image even more? Somebody finally comes along and does online music sales the right way, where everybody wins, and these freaks still aren't happy. Maybe Apple should start a record company. That way the musicians, who oh-by-the-way mostly all hate their record companies anyway, could jump ship and have a viable non-satanic option that would probably be more lucrative for them, more satisfying for their fans, and move the industry forward instead of holding it back because of some ridiculous inate fear that there might not be quite enough money coming in to feed the record company pigs.

Okay, steam is coming out of my ears, need to calm down. Thinking about a Powerbook G5.....aaahhhhh.

-Piker

 

[AlanAudio]

It's now entirely obvious that the Labels aren't going to play fair and are set on a course to simultaneously disadvantage their artists, their customers and Apple.

That's three pretty formidable enemies to pick on and few organisations are able to simultaneously fight on so many fronts with any hope of success.

If they labels don't play nicely, then why should Apple ?

I hope that Steve Jobs has an alternative strategy that will achieve the same outcome, but will also be hugely unpalatable to the labels.

They had a chance to act intelligently but, as always, they chose to resist it.

 

[Bhennies]

The record labels must be masochistic, because they continue to shoot themselves in the foot. Idiots.

 

[billyboy]

But perhaps iTunes may change that.

Perhaps now, people will start finding music more through browsing iTunes genres,.... is a lot more convenient than hearing a song on radio, trying to find it's name, then going looking for the album on the internet or in a shop.

You can find and buy tracks playing on the radio via iTunes music store. Look under the radio section

 

[rspress]

This is the most backwards opinion I've ever heard!
The record companies are scared that Apple will succeed? What a load of rubbish. They NEED apple to succeed in order that they don't lose millions of dollars revenue from illegal downloads.

I would imagine the record companies have a large say in which artists are promoted. For example, I doubt Apple gets to choose which song the give away for free each week. I would imagine that is dictated by the record companies.

I have been telling people this on other forums for a long time now. The record companies never wanted online sales to work. Subscriptions with heavy DRM and total control is what they wanted. Apples free and easy DRM and the fact you don't have to keep paying month after month scared the labels but it being Apple they figured it would not last long and they can say they tired it and it did not work.

Of course this makes no business sense but then again they are going after P2P sharing instead of the real pirates who copy the discs, label and all and sell them on the street and to stores as well. The RIAA once said that 1 in 6 discs in a store is a pirate copy. They are only going after the easy money and consider any thing that is not under their total control unacceptable... whether there is a real threat or not.

I have not downloaded a music file via P2P since the iTMS store opened but if they continue to raise the price and increase the DRM to scare of customers then I will go back to P2P....it only takes a second to launch the program.

 

[hulugu]

If the RIAA manages to bomb iTunes

I have not downloaded a music file via P2P since the iTMS store opened but if they continue to raise the price and increase the DRM to scare of customers then I will go back to P2P....it only takes a second to launch the program.

I'm going back to p2p and the local used-CD store if the iTunes model disappears, I refuse to buy into a subscription model and iTunes DRM is just fair-enough for me to put up with it, anything more difficult or based around Windows Media Player and I'm gone as a customer for digitally based music.