Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPod Family, iTS
Report vilifies iPod, blames Apple for holding back music industry
A BusinessWeek article cites a report from an independent analyst that weekly averages of legitimate music downloads, as of Nov. 27th, are actually down by 0.44%. Yep, a whole barely half-percent. The article also quotes Napster's CEO, Chris Gorog, who once again vilifies the iPod and Apple, blaming the two for holding back the music industry: "You have this device consumers love, but they're being restricted from buying anything other than downloads from Apple. People are bored with that."The article's an interesting read, but I really don't think this is cause for alarm. If anything isn't helping the music industry, I'd put money down that it's the subscription services. The labels are trying to push the idea that consumers rent content; they don't buy it. While that same argument could possibly be thrown at DRM, at least I still get to play my music if I stop buying songs from the iTMS. Nevertheless, check out the BusinessWeek article for a different perspective on the iPod and the state of legitimate downloads.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
emily. said 3:07PM on 12-16-2005
Anyone *can* sell content for the iPod. It just has to be non-DRMed AAC or MP3 files. It's not difficult. There are sites that do it. The "big guys" just have to realize how simple the solution actually is.
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Jan Kabili said 3:23PM on 12-16-2005
"People are bored with that"? I don't think so. The market speaks for itself.
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John S. said 3:32PM on 12-16-2005
This guy doesn't know what he's talking about. I've bought all kinds of non-Apple content for my iPod. For example, emusic.com has non-DRM MP3s that are a lot cheaper than iTunes. Not a lot of new music there, but plenty of back catalog stuff. I've even bought CDs, for the express purpose of putting them on my iPod.
What I will not spend a dime on is subscription-based music that -- like a carton of rotten milk -- expires after a certain date.
Sorry Napster, it's your business model that's holding you back, not the iPod.
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Wheels said 3:40PM on 12-16-2005
I'm bored with Napster and the music industry as a whole. The music industry was in a slump long before the iPod and iTunes.
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superjeff said 3:43PM on 12-16-2005
I read this article a couple of days ago and thought about giving you guys a heads up, but then realized that this guy just published some trash to get the Apple people riled up and get some publicity in the process. Let's not blog about this sort of crap. Every person who follows your link is just fueling the fire.
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Amy said 3:46PM on 12-16-2005
My school pays for us to have access to eMusic. I download their non-DRMed content and play it in iTunes and on my iPods. Works great. These other companies need to get with the program and realize that Apple is not the bad guy here.
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Jeff McFarland said 4:03PM on 12-16-2005
Perhaps sales could be down (by less than half a percent) leading up to the holidays because music lovers are holding off purchases until after Christmas in hopes that they will be receiving their favorite CD and/or gift card. Just a thought...
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dogfriend said 4:13PM on 12-16-2005
This article is similar to several other recent articles that always imply that iPod is a closed system. It is FUD. There are several ways of getting content for the iPod other than the iTMS.
Note that some of Sony's Digital Music Players are much more restrictive of content format than the iPod, but Gorog did not complain about Sony.
DRM is the issue that is holding the music business back, as the first comment noted.
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Brian said 4:43PM on 12-16-2005
I'm not bored with it!
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shrimp said 5:00PM on 12-16-2005
Maybe it's because Napster and everyone else are using a closed Windows Media format, not Apple. Any one of them can sell music on MP3s, but only idiots buy WMA.
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kirk said 5:45PM on 12-16-2005
What Jeff said. Sequential growth is flat through comparing Q3 to Q4 through 11/27 because of other dynamics going on in customers wallets. A better compare would be year to year growth. I'm sure sales are up big time vs. a year ago. We need to wait until the quarter ends before jumping to conclusions Businessweek.
And the Napster/Real blaming iPod and Apple for all their woes is very tired. The iPod changed the game in terms of MP3 players. iTMS changed the game in terms of legit downloads. Don't blame the competition because your product sucks.
I think it says a lot of the product and the music store, that the Microsoft juggernaut hasn't made a dent in Apple share. None of the MP3 player hardware is getting near the cool points that iPod has. And I'm still not sold on the subscription model for music. The subscription model for video? That makes more sense.
If iPod and iTMS wasn't around, the market would be a fraction of the size it is today. Napster would still be whining because, at the end of the day, it has an unsustainable business model.
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Stephen Liu said 6:24PM on 12-16-2005
I think it's the RIAA that's holding back the record industry, demanding that Apple charge higher prices form some songs. 99 cents a good price point that's relatively affordable. But the $1.29 that the record labels want Apple to charge on more popular songs shows hor greedy they are.
I'd say the iPod and iTunes actually helped to promote legal downloads. I blame Napster for the decline.
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Teelar said 7:56PM on 12-16-2005
Apple CREATED the download music industry. Period. I dread the day it is opened and contaminated with the likes of trailer-park Microsoft. Not on my iPod.
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icruise said 10:13PM on 12-16-2005
I bought a handful of CDs a year before iTunes came along. I mostly just bought the new releases of people I already knew I liked. But after iTunes, I am buying new music right and left. I've probably bought more in the last 2.5 years from iTunes than I did in the previous 10 years. Yeah, Apple's really holding the music industry back.
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Chipnsocal said 11:22PM on 12-16-2005
I love the ITMS, but I use it selectively...mostly because I already have much of the music I couldn't live without. Either because I had the original CDs - or back from my college days, using the original Napster.
I think the problem that BusinessWeek and many in the recording industry are overlooking is the "QUALITY" of the music being produced.
I am so thankful that I don't have to download the filler songs on an album, when I can download only the ones I want. $10 for the 10 songs you want, rather than $50 for the 5 albums containing the same 10 songs.
I would like to see more quantitative data from these sources before they say downloading music is not working.
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