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Apple iTunes Sees Big Drop in Music Sales

wsj.com

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Re: Apple iTunes Sees Big Drop in Music Sales

#31

Post by morkfromork »

diminoten wrote: post #29
iamben wrote: post #27

You can't put the genie back in the bottle. The way we consume changed dramatically over the last 20 years, and with change, it means where, how and who profits changes. I'm all for competition but I feel it's going to end up ruining it for those that consume, and ultimately those who create - in both music and movies. Spotify is as close to 'perfect' as I think we've seen a streaming service so far. Most, if not all…

Spotify is not as good as Google Music. Why does everyone forget Google Music? And you can't leave Google Music to boot -- not without leaving YouTube too!

The problem I have with Google music is every time I upgrade the OS or hard drive it counts that as a new device. Max of 10 devices. You can only remove 4 devices from you account per year. I ran out of devices so no more Google Music.

Re: Apple iTunes Sees Big Drop in Music Sales

#32

Post by toomuchtodo »

diminoten wrote: post #29
iamben wrote: post #27

You can't put the genie back in the bottle. The way we consume changed dramatically over the last 20 years, and with change, it means where, how and who profits changes. I'm all for competition but I feel it's going to end up ruining it for those that consume, and ultimately those who create - in both music and movies. Spotify is as close to 'perfect' as I think we've seen a streaming service so far. Most, if not all…

Spotify is not as good as Google Music. Why does everyone forget Google Music? And you can't leave Google Music to boot -- not without leaving YouTube too!

> Spotify is not as good as Google Music.

> Why does everyone forget Google Music?

I believe you've answered your own question. Spotify doesn't have to be better, users just must enjoy the experience more.

“No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.” —CmdrTaco, Slashdot (regarding the ipod versus the Nomad)

Re: Apple iTunes Sees Big Drop in Music Sales

#33

Post by freehunter »

iamben wrote: post #27

You can't put the genie back in the bottle. The way we consume changed dramatically over the last 20 years, and with change, it means where, how and who profits changes. I'm all for competition but I feel it's going to end up ruining it for those that consume, and ultimately those who create - in both music and movies. Spotify is as close to 'perfect' as I think we've seen a streaming service so far. Most, if not all…

Exactly. And if music I want isn't on Spotify... I just don't listen to it. For better or worse. I like Garth Brooks, but I haven't listened to his stuff in ages because it's just not available to me. I don't own a CD player and I have a 16GB iPhone so local music is out even if I wanted to pirate it.

I mean, I'm not even going to switch to piracy. Local music is out and it's not coming back for me. If Mr or Miss Big Name don't want me to listen to their music, there are a thousand other bands I will switch to.

Re: Apple iTunes Sees Big Drop in Music Sales

#34

Post by [deleted] »

Steko wrote: post #14
steven2012 wrote: post #4

I'm curious what the net amount of money going to musicians are, as opposed to the amount of money going to record labels. That's much more important to me, because I don't care if the music labels starve, but if the musicians go broke, then there is no more content. And in this age, it seems strange that there isn't a good way for a musician to completely bypass labels altogether and just release music on their own,…

The artists are the ones that let the labels make all the sales/straming money. Take 10 decent artists, the label says "ok we like all of you, whoever will sign for the lowest % of music sales/streaming will get signed and promoted and has a good chance to get famous and make that much more from concerts, etc.". Of course they end up making all the sales/streaming money. That's not evil that's just how it works.

[deleted]

Re: Apple iTunes Sees Big Drop in Music Sales

#35

Post by ewzimm »

freehunter wrote: post #30
diminoten wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spotify is not as good as Google Music. Why does everyone forget Google Music? And you can't leave Google Music to boot -- not without leaving YouTube too!

People forget about Google Music because Google seems to have forgotten about Google Music. Same with Google Voice. They don't push it, no one will use it. Personally for me, I switched from Google Music to Spotify because Google boycotts Windows Phone. I don't have the patience to put something in my workflow that doesn't work on every platform I use.

There are a lot of good streaming music services, but Spotify is the only one that seems to be committed to working everywhere on every device. That means a lot more to most people than having a specific artist or audio quality.

Re: Apple iTunes Sees Big Drop in Music Sales

#36

Post by Retra »

acheron wrote: post #12
alyx wrote: post #5

Personally, I have not bought music since streaming services started covering 90% of the music I listen to.

That's so bizarre to me. I'm pretty much with Penny Arcade on this: "it's basically infinity dollars." [1] I mean, the idea of "owning" a digital file is a bit nebulous, but streaming offers nothing to me. Though I'm completely the opposite when it comes to movies, where I'm perfectly happy with streaming. So who knows. [1] http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/05/15

Music is already 'nothing.' Just sounds in the air. But then, life is also pointless if you want to go down that road.

Re: Apple iTunes Sees Big Drop in Music Sales

#37

Post by NeutronBoy »

dublinben wrote: post #22
zaidf wrote: post #11

I rarely ever purchased music. And yet, thanks to Spotify I've been paying ~$10/mo for the last 4 years. For all the hate it gets, its turned people who rarely ever paid for music into paying for it every month.

You might be interested to know that your $120/year is several times what the average consumer has ever spent on music per year.[0] It's quite likely that streaming services have already captured all the consumers willing to pay this much. The only growth will come from lowering prices. [0] https://recode.net/2014/03/18/the-price-of-music/

I would never have normally spent $120 per year on music, yet I do for Spotify. I also listen to a ton more music than I would have otherwise, because after my $10 per month its 'free' - if an artist I'm tangentially interested in releases an album, it's likely I'll listen to it. Traditionally, I would never have done that because I wouldn't have paid >$20 for the album.

Re: Apple iTunes Sees Big Drop in Music Sales

#38

Post by Excluse »

zaidf wrote: post #11

I rarely ever purchased music. And yet, thanks to Spotify I've been paying ~$10/mo for the last 4 years. For all the hate it gets, its turned people who rarely ever paid for music into paying for it every month.

IIRC there's a great passage in "Steve Jobs" (Isaacson) that eloquently describes how the iTunes store got people to pay money for music they were previously getting for free.

Here's the Gen-Y version.

Re: Apple iTunes Sees Big Drop in Music Sales

#39

Post by aikah »

steven2012 wrote: post #4

I'm curious what the net amount of money going to musicians are, as opposed to the amount of money going to record labels. That's much more important to me, because I don't care if the music labels starve, but if the musicians go broke, then there is no more content. And in this age, it seems strange that there isn't a good way for a musician to completely bypass labels altogether and just release music on their own,…

> I'm curious what the net amount of money going to musicians are, as opposed to the amount of money going to record labels.

Before It didn't really matter. Yes artists were screwed on sales, but they were getting a lot of money before hand with juicy contracts. On a 10$ CD sale they used to win around 1$. The rest was made with touring ... So unlike today artists were getting a lot of money upfront. Anyway there were still getting 1/10 on each sale, compared to the pennies they get with Spotify...

A way to bypass labels hey? but running a label is a full time job. It's like saying, why don't artists do their own promo? why don't they do all their own design, videoclip, PR ,manage sells on digital plateforms, send DMCA takedown requests to thousands of websites, and design and sell tshirts/merchandize on their own ?... well you can't really make music, shows, be on the road,and manage all these things at once.

Sure,if you're JayZ,you can own your own label, your own plateform, and a whole team dedicated to all these stuff, but all artists aren't JayZ

Labels used to be "banks" for artists ,no more, no less. Try to bypass banking and see what happens.

Yet I'm optimistic.Things always evolve in an unexpected way. But to say "artists are better off without labels" is misunderstanding the role of labels.

Re: Apple iTunes Sees Big Drop in Music Sales

#40

Post by a3n »

click170 wrote: post #17
notnickwolf wrote: post #2

Try this if it asks you to sign in: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...

I still get asked to sign in when I view that link, but that's besides the point: I wish paywall'd articles weren't accepted here. Maybe there is a place for paywalls in this world, I just don't think we should be posting links to them here.

Ironic comment, considering what the article is about.

If you don't like paywalled sites, just don't go there. What have you really missed? There are plenty other articles elsewhere.

(Big Music/WSJ) vs (streaming/any other article on any other subject on the internet). Same thing.

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