‘Apple Has Destroyed the Music Business’–What Was Left of It, Anyway

[Jeremy Charette]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20071029/apple-destroyed-music-business/' target='_blank'>http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20071029/apple-destroyed-music-business/</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Many, many years ago, when the digital-music business consisted of little else besides Napster and the Recording Industry Association of America’s lawsuits against it, Apple proved that there was indeed a decent business to be had in selling music online for $1 per song. With iTunes, it quickly established a market for paid downloads as the music industry wrung its hands in utter incomprehension at this new age of digital distribution that was dawning. So it is ironic, enormously ironic, to hear NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker accuse Apple of ruining the music business."</i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/babycrying.jpg" /> <br /><br />Apple destroyed the music business? Back in the days of Napster, Apple was the only one willing to concede to the RIAA's demands. They attached DRM to every song they sold. Now that Apple has established themselves as one of the biggest music retailers in the US, the studios (music and otherwise) are hankering for a bigger piece of the pie. Seventy cents on the dollar isn't enough. They want a share of the hardware sales. I smell one thing in Zucker's comments: greed. Go ahead, bite the hand that feeds you.

[RichL]

The record labels destroyed the music industry, not Apple.

Their Luddite approach to technology has been incredibly destructive and their greed has sucked all of the creativity and edge out of the industry.

And why should they get a cut of hardware sales? Should they also get a cut of guitar sales, in case someone strums a few cords of Stairway to Heaven?

[Jeremy Charette]

Or more accurately, should they get a cut of CD player sales? Or record player sales? Or receivers or amplifiers or speakers or headphones?

Frankly, Apple deserves the success they've enjoyed. They earned it. They reached a happy compromise where everybody wins, but the studios want more.

I'd love to see artists sidestep the labels entirely, and sell music directly on iTunes themselves. Several already are.