
More Artists Steer Clear of iTunes  - nickb
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121987440206377643.html?mod=most_viewed_tech24
======
wmeredith
"...the [Eagles] had received less than $500,000 from its iTunes sales at that
point. The band's iTunes income has increased since then, Mr. Azoff adds.
Nonetheless, he says: "I'm underwhelmed by the number of sales I see on iTunes
for the classic bands."

I still find it humorous that these people expect sympathy from the masses.

~~~
netcan
So do the record companies. There's a debate show here (Australia) that hosted
a piracy/music industry. Some record industry rep explained that the industry
wasn't thrilled about digital (even if people pay) because it cannot _sustain_
on 'singles alone.' He seemed fairly confident that there cannot be any change
of standard until they're confident that the new the change is _sustainable_.

It's one thing complain that their rights are being trampled by piracy. IE
they have a right to 'sell' their work. But a right to sell albums is a little
far fetched.

------
brk
Funny that they mention Kid Rock and the single-song sales being what keeps
many labels away.

About 10 years ago in Kid Rocks basement I was present when he was laying out
his instructions to a new band: Give me 2 good songs, and 10 fillers. This
wasn't a revelation in the music industry, it takes a LONG time to produce one
good song, and you want to have something for a followup album. However,
almost every CD I've ever bought has had only about 20-40% "great" content,
and the rest was "eh". This seems to be particularly true for newer acts.

The music industry is imploding on itself anyway, they seem forever determined
to try to give their customers exactly what they don't want.

------
netcan
I must be one of the few that actually likes albums.

I don't like the industry acting like they have a right to sell them to me if
I wanted a single. And if people don't generally like em they should die. But
I'd prefer the album format stuck around.

~~~
jrockway
Same. Many of my favorite songs are album songs, not the "hit singles". I will
usually buy an entire album if I want one song -- but I don't want to be
_forced_ to.

------
noonespecial
It seems like every great artist has around 5 good songs per career. At the
extreme outside edges, you might get a "U2" who could have as many as 15 or
20, or a "Laura Branigan" who will have only 1. The rest of their work is
essentially filler.

I like where this is headed. Its long past time to hear a lot fewer songs from
a lot more artists.

~~~
jleyank
Two comments - one snarky and one not. (1) I have problems with a "great
artist" and "Laura Branigan" used in this context. Assume you need 2-3 hits to
demonstrate you're not just lucky... (2) I think the Beatles remain more than
two standard deviations beyond the mean. More than 15-20 hits, and how many
bands have done 2-3 albums/year for more than one year?

~~~
noonespecial
Ha! Touche! FTR: I typed in "One Hit Wonder" into google to get "Laura
Branigan". And the Beatles, yeah, complete outlier. Probably shouldn't be
categorized in the same universe as todays commercial music acts. A Beatles
album is something you can put in and listen to in its entirety and its a work
in and of itself. Theres a few others like that (Pink Floyd maybe?) but they
are so extremely rare and, (I assume so very difficult to produce) that they
should have their own category.

The point of it all was that I'm looking forward to a shift in the market that
allows me to here more peoples' best shots and less big-label bands' mediocre
filler.

------
raganwald
Forcing people to buy albums for more money than the single they really want
is another way to disguise the concept of charging more for popular singles.
That's the iTunes policy they really hate. The reason there are only a few
"complete works" for sale on iTunes is that Apple won't let the labels call
nine completely unrelated songs a "work" as a sleazy way to charge $6.99 or
$9.99 for a Kid Rock single.

<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2005/11/18.html>

p.s. Complete works" are not rare in the classical music section. Perhaps the
artists should try actually composing a complete work--as prog rock did in the
70s--and seeing if Apple will see things their way?

I wouldn't argue if an album like "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" or "Dark
Side of the Moon" was packaged as one movement per original LP side or even
one big purchase.

------
metaguri
i think that this article was woefully misguided. not that it's easy to write
about something as subjective as music (in the WSJ no less) but i think some
key ideas were left out.

first and foremost, the article only discussed the sales of famous, high-
volume-selling artists. neither they nor i have the data to verify this, but i
would be willing to bet that the distribution of album sales across all bands
has flattened out significantly since itunes came about. i like itunes because
i can find new artists on it through recommendations, search, podcasts... and
if i sample an album's tracks and find it to be all good, i do buy all of it.
but otherwise... why should i pay for tracks that i don't want to listen to?
if an artist is arguing that the album is designed to be heard as a whole,
then by all means, prove it.

secondly, again although it's the WSJ, i don't think it would have been too
audacious to admit that perhaps half of those full albums aren't worth buying,
and that popular music was going through a bubble thanks to the dominance of
cd-based albums as the only medium around. to me, online music piracy emerged
as a reaction to this. i imagine that fileswapping services still have a
healthy user base, but the emergence of itunes from nothing to the dominant
player in 5 years indicates to me that people are willing to pay for music,
when they feel like they're actually getting something for their dollar.
purely anecdotally, everyone i know who was a one-time "pirate" has switched
to itunes/rhapsody. not because we're hugely wealthy, but perhaps because
we're discovering more great artists this way, and feel inclined to give them
some dollars to help them keep making music.

