Jobs tells it like it is - calls music labels "greedy"

I am part owner of a small independent record label here in the UK. To tar all labels with the same brush of "greedy dinosaurs" is grossly unfair. Headroom Records was set up by a group of friends because we love music. The artists we have signed get a very good deal - far better, we believe, than any of the majors would give to unknown acts. In fact, the deals we have made so far have cost us an awful lot of money, and that money has come out of our own pockets. I'd love to be able to make back some of the money we have sunk into these artists, but our primary objective is to promote the music. This is not an easy job, and it is made harder by being limited o physical CD sales. For a small label to get it's artists onto iTunes is almost impossible, unless ou are lucky enough to have released a hit single / album. I guess that the short version of what I am trying to say is "Don't lump us all in together".

Consider that not all the labels are asking for a price hike and that the parent company of one of the labels behind this (Sony) has reasons to want to kill the iTMS. As in, the iTMS drives iPod sales, and that makes it harder for them to sell their own players. Also, Sony's players cannot play music bought from the iTMS.

See one nifty features on itunes now is podcasting. That is the thing that should scare the record companies.NO not because of talk news and other things like that, but independent artist. Yes i today if I had a band could record something in digital format pretty easily in a home made recording studio and make it an mp3 and throw it on itunes without a problem. THink about all these indie band and how they can use the podcast feature to their advantage. Yes its free but its the artist putting up their own music for the public to see. Anyone in the world can access then newest song my band puts out minutes after i post it on itunes. Itunes next step in my opinion in the next few years when cds all but disappear out of the market is having individuals hosting their own music but being able to sell it on itunes. Where there is no longer a need for big recording industries and record labels. Well there would be a need but their roles would eb greatly changed.

I think they do get it. Currently the labels make most of the money and iTunes has a danger of cutting them out of the loop. When they go before congress and say that downloading songs steals from the artists they really mean "and that is our job".

What do the record companies expect? Loyalty? From people they have been cheating out of money for years? I remember when CDs first came onto the market how they said the prices would drop drastically once the format was established and be to the consumer's advantage. Has this happened? Of course not. They have to get a grip on reality, accept that the hi-life times are over, and maybe also see that some of their high-profile artists are simply overpaid for what they deliver. Did record execs ever consider that maybe poor and bad music had an influence on sales going down? I would not be surprised if the future will be the bands/artists selling their stuff themselves through shops like the iTunes one. Roger O'Donnell - formerly of The Cure - is doing this with the compilation of his new label.

I've submitted nearly 100 titles from my label to the ITMS over the last 18 months, of which 64 have been added (more coming soon). I can't add much to the discussion except to note the irony that Apple are very bad about getting the correct pricing for the materials we've given them. Steve Jobs complains about labels that want to raise prices, but what about when the ITMS charges $9.99 for a 20 minute EP by Daniel Menche? I've informed them about the problem a year ago--A YEAR AGO--and it's still incorrectly priced. We have the bulk of the Legendary Pink Dots back catalog in the store now, but it's supposed to be $7.99, not $9.99. Again, Apple have known about the issue for a year but have done nothing to correct it. Basically, if it's not $9.99 for a single CD, or $19.99 for a double (and so on), they'll get it wrong. This is particularly annoying when we give them a multi disc set, like Randy Greif's "Alice in Wonderland", and ask them to charge $29.95 for it, but after a year it's still $49.99. Big sigh!

Mikey - Yes, the Nano will automatically pause when you remove the headphone or the dock connector. My 3G iPod also will pause automatically when you unplug the dock connector.

JL984, you're right... but check out my suggestion...

Cecil, Your proposal that you should get the future tech. versions of songs you've already bought doesn't make sense because then no company would invest in new technology. The cost for research and development of those future technologies, to encode them and distribute them would be eaten by the record companies since you will not pay a nickel towards recouping those costs. For the record companies, their response would be: "Let them buy 8-tracks."

Absouletly agree with the last comment... How many of us have the same music in different formats. Since it's a given that any future format will be possible to have as a digital file even if the industry argues that you can't download it for free since the remastering was not free then customers should be able to have an "upgrade" option just like software.