p2p news / p2pnet: Warner Music, Sony BMG, Vivendi Universal and EMI, the members of the Big Four Organized Music gang, are nothing if not venal, unprincipled and totally lacking in concern for the people who keep them fat and happy – their customers.

‘Consumers’ must be made to consume, mindlessly, and in the 21st century, that means suing them into it.

This bizarre marketing step is necessary because by far the vast majority of online music lovers flatly refuse to pay the $1 and more the handful of corporate music ’services’ are forced to demand.

We say ‘forced’ because the Big Four wholesale their low-fi downloads at between 60 and 85 cents each, meaning the iTunes and Napsters of the world have to try to get a dollar retail, at the least.

And even that isn’t enough. The record labels want more, a move Apple, owner of iTunes, the iPod filling station, is resisting and if the New York Post is to be believed, Apple is making its point.

Now, as though iTunes figures in the real world of online music, “The record industry may be on the verge of waving the white flag in front of Apple boss Steve Jobs, and abandoning its demand for iTunes to charge different prices for different songs,” says the New York Post.

Organized Music cartel members promote the idea there’s a booming corporate online music business. But it doesn’t yet exist. All the running is made by iTunes, cleverly disguised as a ’store’. iTunes as such is barely breaking even and the site isn’t about tunes, it’s about iPod.

Since 2003, iTunes downloads have reached what is it, 600,000? A billion? But that statistic hardly even computes against what’s happening on the p2p networks.

In the US alone, in February this year, on average, 6,978,098 people were simultaneously logged onto the p2p networks at any given moment, says p2p research firm Big Champagne.

Globally, the figure was 9,992,298 and during September, 2005, the average number of files available for download at any moment (average simultaneous files) was close to three billion – 2,789,154,393, to be precise.

And these numbers don’t take into account what’s happening on genuine music download sites such as AllofMP3.com, or on sites run by independent labels and artists.

However, these statistics are rarely if ever cited by the mainstream media which instead parrot Big Four releases promoting the entirely specious idea that surfers are flocking to the corporate download and downloan sites.

Now, as though iTunes figures in the real world of online music, “The record industry may be on the verge of waving the white flag in front of Apple boss Steve Jobs, and abandoning its demand for iTunes to charge different prices for different songs,” says the New York Post.

“Negotiations between Apple and the four major music companies – with which iTunes deals all expire in the next two months – have reached a crucial point as several record executives now say they are unlikely to convince Jobs to allow variable pricing, sources said.”

Most recently, the cartel has been demanding variable pricing the ability to charge less for some tracks and more for others.

But Jobs intelligently, “wants to maintain the standard 99 cents-per-track retail price”.

Given iTunes’ true raison d’etre, he has no choice.

“Some executives even mentioned to The Post the possibility that some labels may end up pulling their music from the service, which is by far the most popular of the digital download services. While sources say this is a remote possibility, the fact that it is even mentioned indicates the talks have been anything but amicable.”

A more likely scenario, says the story, is that, “existing deals at some of the companies will expire and the two sides will operate without a deal as they seek to reach terms, sources said”.

And, “One high-level music industry executive, who believes the record industry will ultimately abandon its push for variable pricing, blamed the labels for not standing up to Jobs. Where in life does the retailer set the price of the content?’ said this person.”

Meanwhile, a parallel distribution network is steadily taking hold as consumers flock in their hundreds of millions away from corporate greed.

Also See:
New York Post – RECORD BIZ MAY SING JOBS’ ITUNE AFTER ALL, April 20, 2006

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 22nd, 2006 at 10:48 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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