 
Jason Levine
Premium
join:2001-07-13
USA
| Goose that laid the golden egg Not to completely repeat a post I made on one of the previous stories about this (I think it was the original one where Jobs said he wasn't going to raise prices), but iTunes is the goose that laid the golden egg to the RIAA. They do virtually no additional work, but merely sit back and let the money pour in.
Estimates of the number of songs that will be sold during 2005 are around 870 million. At $0.99 per song, that's $861.3 million. The RIAA gets a 65% cut of the sales, so that's $559,845,000 just for sitting on their behinds. Sure, CD sales dwarf this figure, but it's still nearly-free money.
So what does the RIAA do? They try to figure out how to squeeze every last penny out of the service regardless if it kills it or not. (The equivalent of torturing the Golden Goose to try to get it to lay platinum eggs because golden just isn't good enough.) And when Steve Jobs refuses to play along, they threaten to just kill off the goose.
The real issue here isn't money, it's control. They handed the keys to the online music industry to Apple early on not realizing how big it could become. Now that Apple's succeeding at it, they want the keys back so they can drive.
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-Jason Levine
My Gallery | Jason's Toolbox | PCQandA.com | URateit.com | |
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joetaxpayer
I'M Here Till Thursday
join:2001-09-07
Sudbury, MA
 ·Comcast
·Comcast Formerly ..
| Next thing, it'll be My audiologist just told me that the price of hearing aids is jumping over 100%. It seems that the RIAA has calculated how many hours the current generation of hearing aid buyers listens to music. The RIAA wants their cut as hearing aids are now considered 'music listening hardware'.
JOE | |
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tapeloop
1959. I try to kick the ball. I miss.
Premium
join:2004-06-27
Airstrip One
| RIAA's gambit I can see the logic (if you can call it that) behind the RIAA's pressure on iTunes: if Jobs blinks, then the RIAA gets a cut of the iPod pie. More $$$.
If Jobs doesn't, then without iTunes and RIAA's library, the buying public will (in theory) buy more CDs to rip for their iPods. Or the RIAA may be cooking up their own online music service. More $$$.
Still seems like a dumb idea though.  There's always the option of not buying at all, buying used, Bit Torrent, etc.
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Copyright infringement is illegal. Murder is illegal. Therefore, file sharing is murder. | |
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Jehu
Premium
join:2002-09-13
MA
1 edit | Not surprised. It was pretty stupid for Jobs to publicly slander the industry that fuels his cash cow, ipod.
iTunes is purely a means to selling iPods. I'd be surprised if Apple made any money at all from sales via iTunes.
Hope Jobs learns to keep his yap shut. Those with the power to decimate Apple's music business probably don't like being insulted.
If he wants to be a martyr though, good for him.
edit: oh, and the piracy thing is a lark. There's nothing out there to suggest that the availability of iTunes has anything to do with any increase or fall of P2P piracy. IMO it does relatively little to stop piracy.
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A new drink for the old drunk
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Duo Maxwell
What? Stop Looking At Me Like That
join:2003-03-31
Racine, WI
| Re: Not surprised. News for yah, the shit industry needs it, it ain't gonna hurt Apple at all, they barely break even on the iTMS sales and besides the iPod was huge well before the iTMS ever came out.
Who's to say the iTMS has to die? Why not sign up all the indie artists and labels. Apple could start dealing with the artists directly screwing the labels completely.
You gotta get your facts straight man or you end up getting bent lol.
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Please visit The Mac Forum We could use some smart masses. - »www.turnyourbackonbush.org/ - »sorryeverybody.com/ - »politics.illhostit.com/ | |
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Jehu
Premium
join:2002-09-13
MA | Re: Not surprised. No the industry does not need iTunes at all....A fact that egomaniac Steve Jobs does not seem to understand.
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A new drink for the old drunk | |
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Vvian Kalyss
join:2003-10-14
Stage 5.0
clubs: | Re: Not surprised. ...so why are they pissing about pocket change if they don't need iTunes? | |
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jps_valdosta
join:2004-05-10
Valdosta, GA
| Pure greed I dont get it. If you purchase a music cd at retail for say $13.00 and it has 12 songs on it, thats $1.08 per track. Im sure the ratio could go up or down depending on the cd. But to me 99 cents per track is really close to the maximum that anyone would want to pay. The music folks are just damn greedy and I hope Apple stands firm with their decision to keep prices like they are and not even think about giving them a cut of Ipod sales. The music industry has turned into a large and legal mafia organization. | |
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verolom
join:2002-03-23
Eagleville, PA | Music Industry Don't want to sound ignorant, but who cares? | |
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Transmaster
Don't Blame Me I Voted For Bill and Opus
join:2001-06-20
Cheyenne, WY
 ·Qwest.net
4 edits | 900 pound Gorilla .79 cents per song, isn't enough, we want a cut from your MP3 players, we want.........a sharp cut off of sound when the axe falls....In the back ground the children of Sam Walton are LTFAO as they watch the head of Taylor Troll bouncing down the stairs from the headsmen's chopping block. One of the son's turns to a brother and observes " Listen; Taylor Troll's head sounds just like a hollow coconut when it bounces".
There are more screams from other recording industary excutives as yet another scion of Sam Walton is branding their butt cheeks with two words Wal Mart.
When are these morons going to realize they Their control of the music business is slipping out of their fingers. | |
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rbright
Premium
join:2002-12-10
Lexington, KY
clubs:
| Slowing The Process Rather than attempting to advance the usage of legal downloading methods, the RIAA is only slowing that process with these types of actions. Charging more than $0.99 per track will cost a consumer more for some albums than they would pay purchasing it in a retail store. When they aren't receiving a physical copy of the album, is it really fair to do this? The only thing they will accomplish by pulling the plug on Apple is opening the flood gates to piracy; and, it's already bad enough. | |
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Kilroy
Premium,MVM
join:2002-11-21
Ann Arbor, MI
·WOW Internet and C..
| Greed for Greed's sake Why do the music companies think that songs should cost more via iTunes? There is no packaging, no tangible media, and no printed material, so why should it cost more? Don't they get it that if they reduce the cost to the consumer, OMG what a concept, they would sell more creating a larger future audience, creating more product sold in the future.
Why has the cost of music gone up when the cost to manufacture has gone down?
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I have two favorite sports teams, University of Michigan and whoever is playing Michigan State. | |
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Matsayz
Premium
join:2005-02-08
Tucson, AZ
| Just when i started buying music they want to up the ante. i had no problem paying 99cents for a song and 9.99 for an album that seemed reasonable. even if i can only have the songs on 5 computers....but you up the ante more and most will go back to their old habits and then piracy will climb the walls! | |
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mrchris
We don't miss you Bush
Premium
join:2002-10-01
North Babylon, NY | Re: Just when i started buying music I'm buying music CDs from NON-RIAA labels (Centura Media/Nuclear Blast/etc)  | |
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Techie714
join:2005-08-02
Anaheim, CA | WAY 2 Go APPLE! Thats great that Apple is not putting up with the crap from the music execs. I will continue to buy Itunes songs and support Apple as long as they stay on there current path. | |
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qdemn7
Smurf in My Loop
Premium
join:2003-09-16
Fort Worth, TX
1 edit | Bad Link I keep getting a "The Page Cannot Be Displayed" for the above link. 
NM, it works now. | |
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Doctor Four
My other vehicle is a TARDIS
Premium
join:2000-09-05
Dallas, TX
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| BANG! Owww, that was my foot! Once again, the music industry shows just how inept
they are by shooting themselves in the foot by threats
to pull the plug on Apple's iTunes.
Stupid, greedy bastards. This is only going to make p2p
use go back up again. At least with iTunes they got
something. They should have been satisfied with what
they were getting.
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"Kayura or Badamon, whichever you are, you should know that I will never give up this battle. By the will of the Ancient, I shall succeed!" - Shuten (Anubis) from the Ronin Warriors.To RIAA/MPAA - You can sue but you can't catch everyone! | |
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eric_n_dfw
join:2001-10-22
Euless, TX
·EarthLink
·AT&T U-Verse
| iPod/iTunes could start supporting WMS? Do you think that, if the music companies do pull the cord that Apple might say, "Fine, we don't make enough off of iTMS anyway, so we'll just update the iPod to start playing WMS music from the other online music stores."?
Either that, or the iTMS can start linking music that they cannot sell to some Russian MP3 site or something! | |
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oh please
@emhril.ameritech
| just like union negotiations This kind of stuff looks exactly the same as unions getting all pissy about profits corporation makes and going on strike to get more money.
Both sides got too much to lose, so they come to the table and make it happen.
No need for us to get our panties in a bunch. This is just rhetorics from both sides. Business is based on greed, this country (USA) was built on greed and runs on greed. Lets not call other people what we are ourselves. | |
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roady1
join:2003-11-13
Cleveland, OH | Oh I think... This is the part where Steve-o says, "Cool, we'll just stop supporting DRM and let the music play!" | |
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yabos
join:2003-02-16
Ingersoll, ON | What's next? Oil companies demanding a cut of automobile profits? I mean, after all, oil sells cars and music downloads sell iPods right? 
Sorry, it's the other way around music execs! | |
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jhboricua
ExMod 2000-01
join:2000-06-06
Minneapolis, MN
clubs:
| What Apple should do is... Start its own Music Label and start signing artists. They could probably afford to do it, get better margins because of their current distribution model and even offer a better cut to the artists themselves.
Then watch the other Labels $hit their pants.
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"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe." - Albert Einstein
Jose A. Hernandez * IT Technician * MPLS, Minnesota, USA * My website: Zerochill | |
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saber11
Check Six
Premium
join:2000-06-09
Clayton, OH
| When they loose their license If the greedy bastages yank thier licenses it would be funny if APPLE should "accidently" let anyone log in and download anything license and cost free on the last day.
"Whoops, guess there was a technical problem, our administrators are looking into it and it should be fixxed by tomorrow"
"Sorry boys your entire catalogs are now in public domain. Dang it must be a system glitch"
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"It doesn't take a village to raise a child, it takes a village to raise a village idiot!" | |
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Safemaster
Premium
join:2004-01-18
Loxahatchee, FL | 0.15 cents average per download allofmp3 is the cheapest I've seen yet depending on encoding bitrate. | |
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