arstechnica.com — Two different analysts paint a different picture of what's going on with the iTunes Store. What does the debate over iTunes sales tell us about the state of the music industry? Are tough times ahead for the music industry if it doesn't change its ways?
Dec 13, 2006 View in Crawl 4
jugalatorDec 14, 2006
I think it's more about the DRM than the quality to most users. The more players and alternatives there are, now lately with the Zune, the more obvious the disadvantages with DRM'ed music are going to get even to the common consumer.When the salesman turns red in his face when trying to explain the steps needed to transfer music purchased from iTunes to a Zune or something else (burn to a CD and re-rip it) to a confused customer, you know there's something badly wrong to the business model.
appetiteDec 14, 2006
geekee... i don't get it.maybe i'm a brilliant genius or maybe i suck but my point was that in this day and age record companies are hurting a musician's business model if the same musician can put on a good live show.the record companies made a lot of money in the 90's off some of the s**ttiest music in our era. i can guarantee my first album will be better than anything by limp bizkit. and i'll send it right you so you can decide how many nanoseconds you want to waste on it. at least you won't be wasting $19.99 on an easily scratched creed plastic disc.
thatsmyaiboDec 14, 2006
High bitrate music would be great, but I think the average person would rather have the smaller file size and fit more music on their player.
dayyveDec 15, 2006
There shouldn't be so much debate going on about music sales. Why do we (consumers) have to make excuses about why sales are down? Music sucks ass right now, spend more time producing stuff worth buying (just my opinion.) If sales are down that is their problem to figure out, not the world's.
jbelkinDec 15, 2006
The original study that 100 articles were written on was based on asking 181 people if they bought more or less itunes tracks - itunes sales have passed 1.5 BILLION, 181 is a fine sample if you're asking if you bought more or less Bentley's or Rolls Royce's this year but not when sales are 1.5 BILLION. Asking 181 people tells you nothing. That's like saying the Earth's population will drop 65% this year because of those 181 people, a bunch said they will have no kids this year versus last year. Analysts are mostly idiots and people wonder why journalists are idiots - here is an example of not actually reading the press release but just slapping their name on it, handing it to their editor and saying - pay me. BTW, from Apple - sales of itunes are up 84% ...
quixDec 15, 2006
"High bitrate music would be great, but I think the average person would rather have the smaller file size and fit more music on their player."So do an "AllofMP3" and let us choose our bitrate when we buy. Better yet, let us set our bitrate preference for all our purchases. This way Apple minimizes the increase in bandwidth load while offering its customers a choice.There are plenty of people happy with 128 kbps. There are plenty of people who would be happier with better quality. Why not make us all happy, all of the time?