Itunes music service

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thearnicasync
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Itunes music service

Post by thearnicasync » Thu May 08, 2003 1:48 pm

This is a little off-topic, but I felt compelled to bring it up. I don't know why. Last night, I downloaded Itunes 4, as I use version 3 constantly for a compute jukebox, burning cds, etc. I was blown away by the new Apple "music store." It's so ridiculously easy to use, the quality is decent (save for a couple of instances my old favorite Ride songs didn't fare the Mpeg4 conversion well). Everything is $.99, and the catalog is pretty fu*king extensive. I got old Lips songs and Slowdive songs I'd lost. Plus, there are a lot of records I just don't want to own in their entirety. In my 24 hrs of experience, it does seem very obvious that more recently recorded music fares the mp4 conversion best. I don't know exatcly why. In fact, i don't really hear much difference between recent "hits" and their mp4 conversions, but I'm no audiophile.

It's interesting to consider what this is going to do to music business. I mean how many party animals (that won't spring for the whole record) are going to turn their hats backwards to buy "Love Removal Machine"? I worked for a year at a web music company in SF during its short heyday circa 2001, and this business model - while very simplistic - seems like it has huge scary potential. It's interesting to think of what this will do to bands (selling themselves song by song). This is a boring conversation, but it's hard not to think that the apple music service is going to shake things up a bit. i couldn't help thinking this might just be the new devil.

:roll:

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Re: Itunes music service

Post by black mariah » Thu May 08, 2003 2:25 pm

The iTunes service is something that the morons at the labels should have been doing a long f**king time ago. Instead of embracing the technology like EVERYONE ELSE AND THEIR MOTHER, they tried to destroy it. I seriously hope that iTunes does well and wakes these dumbasses up.
Heurh!

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adeadcat
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Re: Itunes music service

Post by adeadcat » Sun May 11, 2003 10:14 pm

it sounds pretty awesome to me. i have no sympathy for a record industry that is unwilling to change. these people (industry executives) are on a serious power trip thinking that if they charge people 20 bucks for a cd of mostly filler material that the public isn't eventually gonna get wise and start stealing the music.

if you want to make money with music (not that i think making money with music is a noble goal), you need to deal with the realities of the industry, just like a company that sales cars.

some record labels are now planting looped versions of songs on kazaa. i think thats cool too, though i've been a victim myself.

i have some other stuff to say, but i'm not fit to write anything cohesive at the moment and i don't want to "rant" because rants are boring and accomplish nothing.
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soundhack
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Re: Itunes music service

Post by soundhack » Wed May 14, 2003 12:50 am

the itunes store is nice, but i found a little more variety on emusic.com... has anyone tried that? it says you can have 3 months of unlimited downloading for $45.

of course all these services are mostly mainstream artists... no deerhoof or microphones or acid mothers temple (sigh)...

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eeldip
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Re: Itunes music service

Post by eeldip » Wed May 14, 2003 11:10 am

i think this is going to be a huge boon to indie music as soon as the infrastructure goes up. think about how much easier distribution will be!

you get a review in a local paper, people just click on a link, and voila 99 cents later they have a song and the artist gets.. well does anyone know? i would imagine maybe 25 cents from an indie (half to the service off the top, half to the label, half to the band.)

25 cents per song is pretty damned good! and if you do your own label you get the 50 cents. even better. remember this is 25 cents for very little work. no manufacturing costs, no mailing costs, etc.

also the accounting will be easier as well. fewer strange hidden costs that the label comes up with... just recording costs, promotional costs, and then the money comes in.

of course this is all based on a dream model, the real one will probably be less good for the artist.

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Re: Itunes music service

Post by Elroy » Wed May 14, 2003 12:19 pm

I believe the new itunes to be evil:

-They seek to monoplize the online music market.
-Their feature their new file format heavily, which is not widely compatiable.
-They tailor their service to feature their hardware and software.
-They incourage buying one song at time, a world in which, one hit wonders and novlelty songs thrive, but artists and people who make music that isn't 3 minute pop songs suffer.
-50 years ago rock music was ruled by single three minute recordings, and catchy tunes. It has since evolved into something more artistic, going back to a "single" market, will set the art form back.
-They require all songs be sold at the same 99 cent rate, which is price fixing, and is uncapitalist.

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adeadcat
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Re: Itunes music service

Post by adeadcat » Wed May 14, 2003 6:38 pm

Elroy wrote:I believe the new itunes to be evil:

-They seek to monoplize the online music market.
-Their feature their new file format heavily, which is not widely compatiable.
-They tailor their service to feature their hardware and software.
evil as it may be, this is pretty standard business practise. any business person seeks to create the closest thing he can to a monopoly, while still remaining within the law. if one wants to be part of the music business, he should deal with the reality that it is a business. obviously, this sucks from the consumer's standpoint. but its the consumer's responsibility to seek out good music, because it will always be possible. industry is never going to kill art to the point where it no longer exists.
Elroy wrote:-They incourage buying one song at time, a world in which, one hit wonders and novlelty songs thrive, but artists and people who make music that isn't 3 minute pop songs suffer.
-50 years ago rock music was ruled by single three minute recordings, and catchy tunes. It has since evolved into something more artistic, going back to a "single" market, will set the art form back.
-They require all songs be sold at the same 99 cent rate, which is price fixing, and is uncapitalist.
all the i-tunes e-music shit in the world isn't going to stop any individual from making a good album and distibuting it at low cost on comapct disc as a whole piece of art if he or she wants to. thats the beauty of modern technology. it is within anybody's grasp to create a really great work at relatively low cost and to distribute it pretty widely without the help of anybody, even a record label.

seriously though, what major label or mainstream rock band is creating album works of art conceived as anything other than a collection of songs thrown together. theres radiohead, and probably a few others i don't know about. more to the point, what independent rock band is doing this? there aren't very many. in any genre, most of the whole albums you buy have a couple of good songs on em and the rest is filler. this is especially true in rock music.
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evan
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Re: Itunes music service

Post by evan » Wed May 14, 2003 9:44 pm

I think I'd still prefer having a real, tangible CD, and I don't usually buy CDs unless I like the entire (or nearly all of the) album. Of course, the real problem of this in competition with file-sharing lies in the fact that $0.00 is still cheaper than $0.99...it may be too late already.

thearnicasync
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Re: Itunes music service

Post by thearnicasync » Thu May 15, 2003 1:56 pm

Interestingly, file-sharing is starting to suck A LOT. I went to Limewire a while back...there's nothing left, and there's a TON of traffic snooping around your computer if you're faster than dial up. It creeped me out, acutally...

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Re: Itunes music service

Post by evan » Fri May 16, 2003 1:06 am

I find Kazaa Lite to be pretty effective for finding larger artists, and Soulseek is something of a replacement of Audiogalaxy...

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Re: Itunes music service

Post by trashy » Fri May 16, 2003 9:53 am

I think the most exciting part about the new iTunes is also the most unheralded: you can stream music from computer to computer using itunes. It's pretty limited right now, but my thought is that eventually Apple will develope this so that P2P will no longer mean downloading back and forth, but streaming. So you would essentially only be listening to somebody else's music collection, which is perfectly legal. It's a cool idea.
Arnica, talk to Jones. He's already using this feature with other guys on campus. His been grinning from ear to ear for weeks.

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Re: Itunes music service

Post by eeldip » Fri May 16, 2003 2:50 pm

wow. never thought of that.

someone is going to be upset about streaming then. i bet it will be legally classified as "broadcasting" and people who do it will get in trouble for operating without a liscence.

do it while you can.

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