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The iTunes Hate Site

As stated above, this person makes a valid point: The internet COULD be a way for artists to make a larger share of the money from the sales of their records.

There's one major problem though, if I record an album, make a website that says "Buy my album, now" and wait. I will most likely sell one copy to my mom and one to my grandma, yeah I made more off of each album, but I only sold two copies and made a total of $10.

If I get this album picked up by a label and promoted, I get between 1-2 cents per copy plus 8 cents per copy for writing the songs minus some deductions. Now that my album is being actively promoted, I sell about 100,000 copies at 10 cents per copy and make $10,000.

My point is, despite that fact that the internet exists and artists can widely distribute their music on their own that doesn't mean a single consumer is ever going to see it. Musicians still require promotion, no matter how you look at it.

Consumers don't browse the web looking to buy albums off of random websites, they look in places their comfortable with: iTunes Music Store, Amazon, etc... In order for a musician to get noticed in any way, he will need some kind of promotional backing.

Some might say that this promotion could be done by the artist himself, but I doubt anyone has the time and energy to do all of this on their own, so once again, record companies are needed.

I think I'm finished, sorry for the long post.
 
I disagree (with the general tone of this thread)

I think that this guy may be a bit confused focusing his "anger" at Apple, but his points are quite right. At the end of the page he actually says that iTunes is good for Independent Artists. I think It's not Apple's fault how the Major Labels treat their artists, Apple is already giving a fair share of the sales to them. What each label does with it's share it's their problem... altough the artist's cut colum in itunes could be fun :) I'm sure independent artists' sales would rocket up...

And the idea that people can pay artists directly is nice, have anybody checked the musiclink.com site? I think is't a good way of rewarding artists that have crappy contrats with labels that give them 10% of the sales... or for the mayority of the bands that don't even have contracts...

(BTW, I like the iTunes store, I just won't be buying music from Majors from it when it comes to Europe... just as I do now with real CDs...)

Note: Just a thought... CDBaby (which this guy likes) takes a 9% cut off what the artist gets on downloaded music, so an artist with CDBaby would get 58 cents from each iTunes download. Not bad at all :)
 
As a lawyer, I can tell you that it is a matter before this site is down in its current incarnation. It is illegal and, contrary to the web site's author, not a parody site and not-for-profit. It uses Apple's commercial photographs, its web-site layout (which Apple may or may not have a copyright to), and most of all, links itself to commercial websites. I give it a month before this site is down. He's entitled to his pulpit but not in this way.
 
Originally posted by Totalshock
If you buy music from iTMS while wearing a tinfoil hat, are you safe?
Click to expand...

Originally posted by IJ Reilly
As long as you fashion it into a pyramid, then yeah, probably.
Click to expand...

Ha ha ha. That's the funniest thing I've heard/read all week.

Just wanted to share.
 
Originally posted by skijoc
As a lawyer, I can tell you that it is a matter before this site is down in its current incarnation. It is illegal and, contrary to the web site's author, not a parody site and not-for-profit. It uses Apple's commercial photographs, its web-site layout (which Apple may or may not have a copyright to), and most of all, links itself to commercial websites.
Click to expand...

Interesting that he uses the Apple iTunes layout to go after Napster, too.

http://www.downhillbattle.org/napster/
 
First off, I agree with the ACC format not being the best BUT that goes for MP3, WMA and others as well. They all dicard vital frequency's that are important to the listening experience.

Now, I think that he's not really looking at it from the business end of things. Not to mention the long term plan that Apple might have for iTMS. Most Artist's contract run out eventually and that would be a perfect time to make one on one deals with these artists. This way they get paid what they should for the music they create. Eventually getting rid of the middle(fat rat) man. Ofcourse, this is just my opine.


~e
 
ok, that guy's a nutbar.

11c per song, right? well, to my knowledge, the highest ever percentage to the artist from a cd album released by a major record label was alanis morrissette's (yeah yeah, sp) "jagged little pill" where she was getting just over $1 per cd. So, what does a CD cost in the USA? about $15? thats LESS than 10%. iTMS? 11c per song to the artist? 99c per song? thats around 11% right? sounds pretty good if you ask me....

edit: whats more, apple could sue that guys ass for using all their images!
 
I was thinking that 6 to 7 percent is an average artist's cut for quite a while now.

I just hope the dude with the website gets his notice about "fair use" and has to create his own style. I was laughing about his Napster-related bits as the iTunes bits were crossed out and struck through. :D Indeed, he is a class act.
 
Originally posted by eclipse525
First off, I agree with the ACC format not being the best BUT that goes for MP3, WMA and others as well. They all dicard vital frequency's that are important to the listening experience.
Click to expand...

So what format would you recommend for the best listening experience? Uncompressed 24 bit 96 kHz AIFF perhaps? Good luck trying to download that from the iTunes Music Store.

My point is, AAC is the best format for the iTunes Music Store because it sounds good, contains liberal copy protection and produces small file sizes. Any format that fits these criteria would be ideal for a portable music player like the ideal portable music player, the iPod.

There are many options for audio-philes who want all the frequencies and the full listening experience, namely LP, Audio CD, DAT, MiniDisc, Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio.
 
Originally posted by Sol
So what format would you recommend for the best listening experience? Uncompressed 24 bit 96 kHz AIFF perhaps? Good luck trying to download that from the iTunes Music Store.

My point is, AAC is the best format for the iTunes Music Store because it sounds good, contains liberal copy protection and produces small file sizes. Any format that fits these criteria would be ideal for a portable music player like the ideal portable music player, the iPod.

There are many options for audio-philes who want all the frequencies and the full listening experience, namely LP, Audio CD, DAT, MiniDisc, Super Audio CD and DVD-Audio.
Click to expand...

I wasn't recommending "uncompressed 24bit 96kHz" is what I think it should be the choice for downloads. ACC is fine for what it is but if I were to pick one it would be "FLAC". It seems like the most promising of the all the formats.

http://flac.sourceforge.net/


~e
 
A revolution in music will be when people stop buying music and start living it: when 25 cent donations support more musicians than CDs ever did, when payola's dead and radio is commercial-free all day long, when every American highschool has a recording studio just cause they're that cheap to set up. This can all happen right now.
Click to expand...
Donations?
Radio is commercial free?
Every American HS has a recording studio?

What planet is he from?
Firstly, artitsts don't need donations...cause probably they wont get them.
2nd, Commercials pay for the free radio!!
3rd, why recoding studio when there are so many more imporant things to add to a HS, like clean bathrooms!!
 
Originally posted by Fukui
Donations?
Radio is commercial free?
Every American HS has a recording studio?

What planet is he from?
Firstly, artitsts don't need donations...cause probably they wont get them.
2nd, Commercials pay for the free radio!!
3rd, why recoding studio when there are so many more imporant things to add to a HS, like clean bathrooms!!
Click to expand...

It sounds to me as if someone has been watching too much Star Trek: The Next Generation. :D
 
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