The iTMS turns 2

Erm. OK. That's a lot less useful with all of the URLs stripped out. Suffice it to say, you can find out more at: http://www.nancies.org/news/2005/04/dmb-on-itunes/

From one of my blogs:

Dave Matthews Band, for one, welcomes their new Apple overlords. As recently as last June, Dave Matthews Band was selling their music on-line only through their own website, unwilling to work with the iTunes Music Store because Apple requires that artists be willing to sell the lion's share of their songs individually, as opposed to requiring the purchase of a full album. This conflicts with the band's belief that each album is a work unto itself, and not to be broken up. By July, though, the band had begun to sell their songs via Napster, giving them an exclusive contract through August. When that didn't pan out, they began selling through Sony's Connect last month. With iTMS dominating the on-line music industry, though, the band has now done the inevitable -- they're beginning to sell their music through iTunes. At the moment, the only track available is "American Baby", the first single from Stand Up, but the accompanying text promises that the album will be available as "a digital exclusive on iTunes in May." It looks like iTMS has, at long last, won DMB's affections.

P.M. Dawn

Yes, I'm lazy. Not only that, but I'm the busiest lazy person you probably know. And time = money. Ripping a CD that may or may not easily locatable in my apartment takes a lot longer than the 2-3 clicks it takes me to just buy the song I want. Not to mention the fact that I often want instant gratification in listening to a particular song and since I don't tote hundreds of CDs around with me, it's worth $.99 for me to have what I want when I want it. Am I spoiled? Yes. But I never claimed not to be.

Sure albums display a piece of musical artwork that reflects the mood of the time it was recorded, though I think at the end of the day you gotta let people have freedom of choice, they chant on about it so much you might as well give them what they want just to shut them up a bit. I'm hoping that a lot of old bands from past decades will eventually added to iTunes and other download services. Especially all those old 60's and 50's vinyls lying about from bands long since forgotten. Regardless of whether anyone will like the band or not I think it is important to preserve a lot of these albums because they are part of history at the time and if nothing is done soon these people work's will be lost forever.

"So much so that I find myself oftren buying songs that I already own on CD just to save myself the extra few minutes of ripping it so I can have it on my iPod." That is just really, really lazy. Besides, how much longer does it take to import your CDs (especially just importing one or two), than having to finding each song in the ITMS and downloading them?

I believe it's because DMB has realized that they have sucked since Befor these Crowded Strets. They didn't want to proliferate their horrible songs.

People need to have the choice though, because most of the time you really only want that one track. No matter what the artist thinks is best. I'd love to see video-game sountracks on the iTMS. It's really hard to find them in any music shop.

I believe they didn't want their albums sold as individual tracks. I seem to recall DMB and Radiohead and some other bands being against the idea - and as a musician I totally agree. Albums like OK Computer or Busted Stuff really are complete works and are best enjoyed as a whole. But perhaps, in the end, money talks...

I didn't know DMB held out from itunes? What was the reason? Do they need money for their shitty lawsuit?