p2pnet - rss feed: iTunes: dumped by Universal
p2pnet news | music:- Universal Music Group has dropped iTunes, says the New York Times.
UMG is the biggest of the Big 4 record labels who’ve been bullying their own customers since 2003. But dropping iTunes? Has UMG finally smartened up, zeroing in on the dollars in the pockets of the hundreds of millions of music hungry p2p lovers who currently ignore virtually all official music industry offerings in favour of what’s easily available on the free p2p networks and the independent sites created by musicians and entrepreneurs?
It is all about money, but not that kind of money.
A favoured tactic of UMG boss Doug Morris is to negotiate with bludgeon in hand and Apple’s iTunes is correctly perceived as being the only game in town when it comes to corporate download offerings.
That in the real world of online music, iTunes has no significance whatsoever isn’t important. Perceptions, not reality, are what it’s all about, and thanks to the mainstream media, iTunes is perceived to be The One to the average uninformed punter, who’s also been taught to believe $1 is a fair price for an iTunes download.
Admittedly, Apple is restricted by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG wholesale pricing, but still ……..
Meanwhile, with thousands of new people around the world opening up Net accounts every day, it’s absolutely vital that these illusions are maintained.
Universal, “said that it would market music to Apple at will, a move that could allow Universal to remove its songs from the iTunes service on short notice if the two sides do not agree on pricing or other terms in the future, these executives said,” according to the NYT.
iTunes started out as a loss leader for the iPod, and even today it’s far more of a user-funded online loader for Apple’s music player than a genuine service. It may now be out of the red and into the black, but if that’s the case, it’s likely to be a fairly recent development.
“In the four years since iTunes popularized the sale of music online, many in the music business have become discouraged by what they consider to be the near-monopoly that Mr. Jobs has held in the digital sector - the one part of the music business that is showing significant growth,” story continues. “In particular, Mr. Jobs’s stance on song pricing and the iPod’s lack of compatibility with music services other than iTunes have become points of contention.”
Steve jobs is the King of DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) consumer control, the fact he’s trying to disavow it in the interests of product promotion notwithstanding.
“Universal may continue to press for more favorable terms from Apple or even explore deals to sell its catalog exclusively through other channels,” says the New York Times. “If Universal were to pull its catalog from iTunes, Mr. Jobs would lose access to record labels that collectively account for one out of every three new releases sold in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan data.”
EMI is the first of the Big 4 to actively sell DRM-free digital music, a fact Apple quickly capitalised on, selling EMI downloads at a premium $1.30 each, justifying the hike by virtue of the fact the files are encoded in AAC at 256 kbps, and, unlike the DRMed 128 kbps mp3s, will play on all iPods, Mac or Windows computers, Apple TVs, and iPhones —
— just like any and all non-corporate downloads, which will play anywhere on any device.
A fascinating situation has developed, centering on 21st century communications.
Digital sales are the future and sooner or later, the labels will be forced to abandon extortion and intimidation as their principal marketing tools and start treating their customers as the people upon whom they depend, instead of accusing them of being criminals.
The mainstream media continue to parrot the corporate party line that p2p file sharing adds up to sales lost; that anyone who shares copyrighted product with someone else is a thief of the same ilk of the criminal entrepreneurs who continue to run rings around the Big 4, using physical DVDs produced in the billions as templates for counterfeit offerings.
While they do that, a parallel media world where unspun news and information rule has come to existence, and that’s where informed customers live. These people know a dollar download is neither realistic nor fair, and they have access to the new distribution technologies which are springing up all around the corporate product, which is still back in the 1990s.
P2p is here to stay and the labels as they are today are as good as dead.
Massive online distribution with p2p as the engine is the new vehicle and products carried on it are flooding the digital universe while the multi-billion-dollar labels look on helplessly, locked into their outdated and outmoded business models.
Once upon a time, Apple languished in the sidelines. But thanks to music, thanks to brilliant marketing, and thanks the devoted mainstream media and tiny but vociferous user base, Apple is now on the cutting edge in the corporate world.
It looks good and reads well in the mainstream media
But that’s not where the action is.
Also See:
New York Times - Universal in Dispute With Apple Over iTunes, July, 2005
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
