Music labels irked by Jobs/iTunes success
CNet reports that the music labels, desperate to slit their own throats, are trying to find ways to separate themselves from the best thing that’s happened to music since the CD, which they also hated until they figured out they could jack up the price (Q: why haven’t CDs come down in price? A: Because people were willing to pay more, so they kept the price artificially high.)
While iTunes is designed to propel the sales of iPods--more than $1 billion worth in the last quarter alone--the labels complain that Apple's policies are insensitive to their goals and limit their ability to grow their digital business even faster....They want to sell older titles at a discount--like the $9.99 CDs available in most record stores--and charge more for popular songs to take advantage of market demand.
They want to make more money, and they resent the fact that Jobs was able to succeed where they had not only failed, but where they were unwilling to go.
Should Apple open up FairPlay? I don’t know. Why should they? They’re the ones who invested all the R&D to get it to work, they’re the ones who provided for the structure to make it happen, they are the ones who host it. Shouldn’t they be allowed the reap the reward of not only being able to see what the labels couldn’t (that the Internet isn’t the enemy) but also delivering a system that works?
Make no mistake, what the labels are upset about is the fact that you no longer have to spend $15 to buy a CD with 1 or 2 good songs on it. If it were up to them, the good songs would be $5 each. And you’d have to buy a copy for your home, one for your car, and one for your iPod. Preferably by monthly subscription.