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Sony-BMG on iTMS Australia?

iMeowbot said:
Hello, this is 1959 calling, we want our scandal back! The weirdest thing that came out in the 1960 hearings is that it turned out to have no real correlation with what sold well; the percentage of payola and non-payola hits turned out to be about the same. Why money continues to be poured down that hole is something of a mystery.
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What are you talking about? The entire pop music industry would be non-existant if it wasn't for money being "poured down that hole". The kids will always buy exactly what popular media tells them to.
 
Payola price tags

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8700936/

This is just a brief summary of the recent scandal. Sony is the worst culprit apparently, but probably all the companies do it to some extent. And this was a crock of a settlement. The CEO probably just had to look under his couch cushions to cough up the $10M - chump change for them.
:mad:
 
The Truth said:
What are you talking about? The entire pop music industry would be non-existant if it wasn't for money being "poured down that hole". The kids will always buy exactly what popular media tells them to.
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It honestly doesn't work unless the product (either the music or just as often the performer's image) resonates with an audience. Labels don't know that ahead of time, and throwing money at something people simply don't like really doesn't change things (well, it can help if that money goes into making the product more appealing, but more exposure to the unappealing version -- which is all payola might accomplish there -- won't fix that).

How many copies of each major label album do you think gets sold on average? A million? Half a milliion? Nope. Three thousand is on the better side of average, half don't even sell that many. The overwhelming majority of major releases flop, and all those flops are coming from the companies who supposedly have complete control of consumer spending habits.

If bribes were really effective, all those failures wouldn't have been issued in the first place and a lot of expense could be saved, and most contracts allow for that. But they do get released, because it's all a crap-shoot. Think of the countless one hit wonders out there, whose heavily promoted second albums failed to make a dent. That's money down the drain, all because the product didn't click with people.
 
Here's a variable pricing for you: 99 cents for new songs, then they lose 1 cent of value every year.

Want that 1985 pop hit? It's only 79 cents when purchased in 2005.
 
And NZ...?

Rather unexpectedly, Sony or not, we in New Zealand are still waiting for access to an iTunes store... despite what some may think, we're not part of Australia and although Apple Australia are happy to bill us here for .Mac fees and QuickTime Pro, this is a party we're not invited to...

Perhaps it's a payoff for being one of the last remaining members of the "Coalition of the Willing" in Iraq – Free Trade Agreement and all.

As our music channels are largely Australian controlled there seems to be no copyright reason to prevent it, so P2P and lame duck channels like CokeTunes and Vodafone have this market all to themselves for now...
 
Lertie32 said:
This is just a brief summary of the recent scandal.
Click to expand...
Yep, that's the news from 1959. It never stopped. I'm amazed that this isn't common knowledge.
 
Who publishes that web page?

winmacguy said:
Are there any Kiwis here who cant access the Australian iTMS, according to this article our access has been cut off:eek: http://xtramsn.co.nz/technology/0,,7939-4945024,00.html
and there are NO plans for a Kiwi iTMS:mad: :eek:
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I too would be interested to see if New Zealanders can still access the store through the loop hole.
This article saying it has been closed is on... wait a minute...
isn't that a Msft website?
Surely they wouldn't put out mis-information....
 
fearless said:
Rather unexpectedly, Sony or not, we in New Zealand are still waiting for access to an iTunes store... despite what some may think, we're not part of Australia and although Apple Australia are happy to bill us here for .Mac fees and QuickTime Pro, this is a party we're not invited to...

Perhaps it's a payoff for being one of the last remaining members of the "Coalition of the Willing" in Iraq – Free Trade Agreement and all.

As our music channels are largely Australian controlled there seems to be no copyright reason to prevent it, so P2P and lame duck channels like CokeTunes and Vodafone have this market all to themselves for now...
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Greetings fearless, that sounds like a very well informed view of the Australiasian music industry. It will be interesting to see how Telstra music goes in Oz now that they have some competition!
 
pmoeser said:
I would be interested to see if New Zealanders can still access the store through the loop hole.
This article saying it has been closed is on... wait a minute...
isn't that a Msft website?
Surely they wouldn't put out mis information....
Click to expand...
Xtramsn, it is a coalition between Microsoft NZ and Telecom NZ ( our monopolistic Telecoms company.) It is a reputable source of information.
 
pmoeser said:
Well that makes it better.
Two monopolies with vested interests would never try to get away with giving out mis-information
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Not trying to defend it or anything, but the site is regularly updated on tech news. The Computerworld source quoted in the article is also another reputable publication.
 
Lacero said:
Maybe the artists represented by Sony-BMG got into an uproar? I checked Sony Australia music site and there are literally thousands of famous artists represented by Sony. I then cross checked against iTMS AUS and found several artists listed, but perhaps they were listed before signing up.
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Like Michael Jackson-is on there, but not Bad,Thriller, Off the Wall. Mindless Self Indulgence, again only has 1 album on the Oz iTMS, but more than one in the US Store.
 
andiwm2003 said:
would it be that bad to have varying prices on music? what's the consensus here?
i wouldn't care about different prices for different songs.
i'm just afraid it would open the door for the music industry to quietly raise the average prices of music and to rip the customers off.
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I want varying pricing, but not the type that the music companies/RIAA/etc. wants. They'd want something like "old songs $0.99, new songs $1.99 (US)". Whereas Joe Consumer would say "new songs $0.99, old songs $.49 (or less)".
 
iMeowbot said:
Hello, this is 1959 calling, we want our scandal back! The weirdest thing that came out in the 1960 hearings is that it turned out to have no real correlation with what sold well; the percentage of payola and non-payola hits turned out to be about the same. Why money continues to be poured down that hole is something of a mystery.
Click to expand...


Pretty good film about that with Kevin Bacon in it. "Telling Lies in America". It was Joe Ezterhas's (sic) redemption film.
 
fearless said:
Perhaps it's a payoff for being one of the last remaining members of the "Coalition of the Willing" in Iraq – Free Trade Agreement and all.
Click to expand...


Isn't "coalition of the willing" a euphemism for the "Neo British Empire" (minus Canada and not including the other token forces of non-English speaking nations)? Its been a while since I've read from a stolen copy of the International Leftist SOP Manual... :)
 
aafuss1 said:
Like Michael Jackson-is on there, but not Bad,Thriller, Off the Wall. Mindless Self Indulgence, again only has 1 album on the Oz iTMS, but more than one in the US Store.
Click to expand...


Why would you want to give Wacko more drachmas to shell out on his next closed-door "settlement"?

I mean, the last time I heard, Gary Glitter isn't doing to well financially...

:)
 
The more Sony BMG sit back and watch the iPod generation pass them by the more money they loose each day, and this means to recoop profits they will have to charge more for a song to make any sort profit.

Honestly I think it's a greedy unscrupulous company getting an ironic punishment for trying to stop the inevitable.

Sony BMG join this millenium and embrace the iPod.
 
winmacguy said:
Not trying to defend it or anything, but the site is regularly updated on tech news. The Computerworld source quoted in the article is also another reputable publication.
Click to expand...

They may well be reputable, but they're wrong. I'm downloading another video as we speak.

In case anyone's curious, I created my account on Tuesday night, but logged in immediately prior to using it tonight.
 
The Truth said:
What are you talking about? The entire pop music industry would be non-existant if it wasn't for money being "poured down that hole". The kids will always buy exactly what popular media tells them to.
Click to expand...

Geez sometimes I think most radio stations wouldn't know what to play either if they weren't being told (paid) to...
 
Actually there is already a way to charge more than 0.99 for a one song. In Finnish iTunes they are selling Depeche Mode's Precious mixes separately (each remix is a one track album). The track has "album only" buying option, and the album price is 1.49 euros (the normal price is 0.99 euros). So, there you have it, one song for more than 0.99 euros!
 
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