Record labels – the only companies more reviled than insurance companies, are obviously getting desperate now. They are looking enviously at the income coming to Apple from iTunes music sales and from Apple’s iPod sales and want for a larger slice of the action.
Now they say Apple should share the revenue from iPod sales with them! No seriously, Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman contends that if if Apple is “artificiallyâ€? keeping the price of downloads low to promote sales of iPods, then as he sees it, the labels should get to “share in those [iPod] revenue streams.â€? Yeah, like that’s going to happen.
I think what they are really afraid of is that someday the artists will go directly to iTunes, bypassing the labels, for distribution – the sooner the better!
Tom, check out the piece I’ve posted about the online record label, Magnatune. Hopefully, this is the start of a better future for the music industry, and its artists.
Hey Maura,
I read your post on Magnatune with interest – I like their attitude and I hope they can sustain it until the rest of the industry comes around to their way of thinking.