Apple claims 5 billion sales
p2pnet news Music:- | P2P:- “Apple has surpassed Wal-Mart to become America’s No. 1 music store, the first time that a seller of digital downloads has ever beaten the big CD retailers,” says the Los Angeles Times.
“Apple sold more albums in January and February than any other U.S. retailer, market research firm NPD Group said Thursday, underscoring how the music industry is on the front edge of a digital media shift that is upending businesses as diverse as bookstores and video game makers.”
But wait!
NPD Group? And Apple?
Isn’t NPD the outfit which claimed iTunes had tied with LimeWire as the second-most-popular digital music service in March, 2005?
Hardly.
Now, company ‘analyst’ Russ Crupnick predicts, “Apple’s music industry power would only continue,” says the LA times, which also has him stating, “If you look at what is happening to the CD and the growth of the digital side, it’s a pattern that is going to hold.”
“One of the music industry’s questions has been when will paid download stores compete head-to-head with free P2P download services,” Crupnick said in 2005, going on, “That question has now been answered.”
And so it has, commented p2pnet.
Not in Crupnick’s life-time.
‘Paying too much for too little’
Apple says it’s sold five billion songs and once again, the mainstream media accept this at face value and run it as fact without once demanding supporting data.
That’s the famed Steve Jobs reality distortion field under full power.
Sold five billion? Like, every single song for hard cash?
Let’s see. Five billion times 99 cents (and often, a lot more, depending on which country we’re talking about) comes to …..
And when did the iTunes loss leader break out of being a loss leader and actually start earning money for Apple —- if in fact it’s ever achieved that?
We’ll never know.
“Many people have celebrated Apple’s announcement that it has sold 5 billion songs on iTunes and it’s the world’s largest music retailer,” writes Don Reisinger in CNET News. “Almost everyone in the world is calling this a major victory for Apple and one that we should all recognize as a milestone that deserves our praise.
“But I don’t. To me, Apple’s success with iTunes and its ability to sell 5 billion songs since its launch is an awful event. In fact, it’s probably one of the worst stories I’ve read all year.”
How come?
iTunes is the, “result of countless negotiations with the record labels that continue to dislike everything we stand for and do everything they can to ensure that we’re paying too much for a track that’s locked down worse than anything we have ever witnessed in this business,” says Reisinger, going on >>>
Why hasn’t anyone realized that Apple’s success with iTunes is the very reason we’re being abused by the music industry in the first place?
Let’s face it – if iTunes wasn’t nearly as successful as it is, the music industry would be forced to find new ways to sell music. Sure, the labels may not like Steve Jobs and they’ve turned their backs on him in the past, but iTunes is a cash cow for these companies.
The post points out when you “buy” a song on iTunes, “you’re not really buying it. Instead, you’re acquiring the license to listen to a song that can be taken away from you at any moment, can’t be sent anywhere you’d like for it to be, and is subject to draconian copyright laws that see you paying too much for too little,” stating >>>
I’m a firm believer that we should own each and every thing we buy. Why shouldn’t I have the right to buy a song on iTunes and do what I want with it whenever I want? I don’t think that’s asking for too much and in reality, I think it’s my right to do just that.
But because iTunes is such a success, we’ve given the record industry the license it needs to keep abusing its power and ensuring that we can’t own music, nor can we transfer it from one place to another.
And why should the labels submit to our will? If the vast majority of people are more than willing to spend $0.99 on a track from iTunes with all of its DRM and ludicrous policies, why should the record industry change a blasted thing? They have us where they want us and there’s nothing we can do about it.
Or is there?
Buying songs on iTunes is only perpetuating our fight with the record industry, “and we’re being forced into a situation where the more we buy, the worse it gets,” says CNET, adding:
“So unless we stop supporting DRM and the abuse that comes along with it, we’ll be forced to endure it.
“It’s time we all wake up and realize that the music industry is getting us without us even realizing it. Instead of paying the RIAA’s meal ticket, we need to cut it off as soon as possible. If we don’t, the music industry will continue to laugh all the way to the bank.
“The choice is ours. Will we make the right decision?”
Perhaps we already have.
Whether or not iTunes is all it’s cracked up to be, and no matter how much influence it has or doesn’t have on Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG, they’re blaming everything from online games to sun-spots for declining sales.
The one thing you never seen mentioned in the mainstream media, though, is the fact the Big 4 have since 2003 been claiming files shared equal sales lost without a shred of evidence to back the claim, and with that as their excuse, they’re suing their own customers —- iTunes users included —- in a ridiculous effort to force them into toeing the corporate line.
There’ve been all kinds of so-called ’surveys’ and ’studies’ from the likes of the NPD and similar firms but to the best our knowledge, no one has studied the effect the Big 4’s bizarre sue ‘em all marketing campaign has had, and is increasingly having, on sales.
“If you look at what is happening to the CD and the growth of the digital side, it’s a pattern that is going to hold,” says Crupnick.
But musicians from all sectors of professional and amateur music are going online around the world by the hour, setting up their own online music businesses and selling their own single tracks and albums.
And IMHO, that’s the pattern which is going to hold.
Jon Newton – p2pnet
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June 23rd, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Only the foolish buy from these rip off stores. I prefer my flac and ogg music from the piratebay or mininova