Debanter

So the iTunes Music Store has sold over one billion downloads. Sounds great to me…with 42 million users, that’s a heck of a lot of downloads that people are getting there instead of the many other outlets where that song could be purchased/rented/acquired without fee.

But apparently (well, according to Digital Music News), that’s not really something to get excited about.

Apple may sell over one million tracks per day, but P2P networks supply
over one billion tracks per month. And over a nearly-three year period,
that difference is quite pronounced, making iTunes a relative sideshow.

Sounds right when just the numbers (an average of 4 million tracks per month vs. 1 billion tracks per month) are compared, I suppose.

But what about the P2P downloads that got someone so pumped about a song that they then went and purchased the whole album, or at least five more songs, on iTunes?

And what about the P2P distributed mp3s that aren’t available anymore for purchase, through iTunes or anywhere else?

Oh, and how about those independent/unsigned artists that threw some songs up there for publicity (or for that matter the publicity stunt "leaked" tracks off of major record label releases)?

It is amazing how much power is given to P2P networks, in order to prove some kind of point against the effects and consequences of music being digitized. Of course I’m going to "cherry pick" through the offerings of major record labels now that I’m given the opportunity. The recordings they are throwing at me are "hit-centric" and often times only include one or two songs I want and a bunch of filler that I could easily live without. If I’m checking out a record online there’s a two step process -

1. I can hear it. Easily, without bugging some bored, disgruntled kid (you know you’re getting old when…) at HMV to help me out at the one listening station for the entire store.

2. I can immediately assess the song per song vs. whole album cost ratio. So, if you’re going to charge me $9.99 for two songs I want, ten I don’t and a digital album, it’s an easy choice - I’m only going to be spending $1.98 today. But, on the other hand, if there’s 7 songs I want and only 4 that I think are "meh", but also a bunch of interviews on there, well then $9.99 is a bargain.

I don’t think it’s a "sad fact…that given the choice online, people choose songs over albums". I think that this pricing model will give the recording industry a much needed kick in the pants to start consistently producing albums where the entire set of songs are worth listening to, not one or two.

Or not.

In which case I will continue my migration away from Top 40 and toward the unsigneds, the unknowns (or rather, the worthwhiles)…for good (or at least continue to relish the fact that I can purchase silly goodness like "Don’t Cha" without having to waste my money on eleven songs I’ll never want to hear).

As another aside about this article, eMusic’s bundled download offering isn’t really properly identified in this article, at least in my humble little opinion. The "premium" monthly fees are substantially lower than what it would cost for me to buy the equivalent amount of music in iTunes.

eMusic Premium - $19.99/90 downloads USD
iTunes a la carte - $89.10/90 downloads CAD

Even accounting for the USD to CAD conversion, it’s still pretty apparent that I’m going to have much less hesitation about purchasing a whole album from eMusic than I am from iTunes.

What would happen if someone started documenting how much revenue the
record labels are loosing each time I purchase an album that isn’t
produced by them but is rather distributed by the band themselves…or
what a detriment it is when someone chooses to listen to the songs done
by their nephew Billy and his garage band instead of purchasing the new
Strokes album? Oh, and how about showing the amount of money they loose
each time a family chooses to sing Christmas songs together instead of
buying Clay Aikin’s [very clearly copy-protected] "Merry Christmas With Love"?

(Funnily enough, I have no problem filling my quota of 90 songs per month - in fact usually I can do it in about an hour. But then, I’m privy to a nifty application that makes an album sing even if each song isn’t exactly a prize.)

Music Like water….Music like friggin water…

This entry was posted on Monday, February 27th, 2006 at 9:13 am and is filed under Issues, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.