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June 22, 2004
Balant Rip-off
Before I start on this next little tirade about Apple and their iTunes music service, I would like to state for the record (no pun intended) that I am a proud owner of an iPod, and absolutely adore it. In fact, I wish I had more opportunity to use it.
That said, I absolutely believe that Apple is absolutely ripping off music fans everywhere by persisting in music distrubution through their online medium. Their sales pitch, on the iPod + iTunes page on the Apple site, is the following:
Largest Legal Download Catalog. Select from over 700,000 tracks from five major labels and more than 450 independents. Enjoy free 30-second previews of all songs. Find hundreds of exclusive and pre-release tracks and many rare, out-of-print albums.
So exciting. They have a large library! But what they don't tell you is that they have a large library of CRAP. And I'm not talking about Britney Spears.
That's right, folks, they'd like you to cough up $0.99 a song to buy an MP3 that is 30% or less of the original recording.
RANDOM iTUNES USER: "But I'm not an audiophile, I can't hear the difference in my headphones."
MY REPLY: Of course you can't hear the difference, because a) you're not comparing that same track on your headphones vs. a real stereo system (and no computer speakers don't count), and you also aren't typically hearing the CD version of the track, otherwise you'd be listening to that instead.
So why do we pay for this horseshit? Because it's convenient. Well, you know, convenience brought us McDonalds, junk food, and a 60% obesity rate in our country. I'm not saying iTunes will make us fat. iTunes, will, however, continue our downward spiral of complacency, pulling us further and further from the demand for excellence in exchange for our hard earned money.
And what about the artists and their hard earned money for their music? Though they claimed that iTunes is "fair to the artists" on their website, the artist ultimately gets a measley $0.11 for each song sold, where Apple gets $0.35, with the remainder going to the record label. (source: Downhill Battle)
Ultimately, I will stand on my own soap box and refuse to use the iTunes music store (I haven't even used my winning Pepsi caps for free songs). If people buy it, the trend will persist, and the quality of our music will go to shit, just like it did when we moved to CDs.
Posted by irena at June 22, 2004 03:02 AM
Comments
oink oink... devil's advocate is here.
being not a music fan (my most sophisticated sound system is the stock audio in the car - where is the only place I listen to music, on my iPod, incidentally) I really don't care how the quality varies from vinil to CD to iTunes version of the tracks.
on the other hand, it's fast, has stuff I like (though not even half of it, sadly) and guilt-free.
on the third hand, soap boxes provide interesting perspective. do stay :)
Posted by: Maklai at June 22, 2004 05:14 AM
... and on the fourth hand, I noticed the comment above sounds redundant in light of the "argumentation" part of the original post, and is to highlight the fact that any opinion is true to their holder and thus has merit as a stand alone truth (which are multitude) and can't be dismissed (well, no, really..hehe).
to retain the devishly spirit, let me ask you this, Ira: if you haven't used iTunes, how do you know they sell.. erm... inferior product? ;-)
p.s. some of my posts go unnoticed by the blog software... is this a conspirancy or am I just spiraling into apophenia?
Posted by: Maklai at June 22, 2004 07:49 AM
After presenting admittedly interesting material in May, this site has flatlined.
If I want rehashed Michael Moore, I'll turn on last year's Academy Awards.
If I want commentary regarding MP3s online, I'll e-mail Shawn Fanning.
June hasn't been your best month. Invite your mother back here. That made for some great material!
Posted by: Alishaw at June 24, 2004 12:59 PM