A decade of iTunes singles saved the music industry

Okay, as we’ve been doing periodically for the last decade, here we go again:

Adrian Covert writes for CNNMoney, “Believe it or not, Apple’s iTunes Music Store turns 10 this weekend. Although iTunes has in many ways been a godsend to fans of digital music, it has been a source of endless frustration for the music industry.”

MacDailyNews Take: Good.

“Since the introduction the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, music sales have plummeted in the United States — from $11.8 billion in 2003 to $7.1 billion last year, according to the Recording Industry Association of America,” Covert writes. “When adjusted for inflation, revenue has been more than halved since Apple launched the iTunes Music Store.”

MacDailyNews Take: Where’s the proof that the cause was iTunes Store and not, say, torrent sites where everything is available for free? Covert offers no proof that iTunes Store did anything but create a legal alternative to theft. People pay for music at iTunes Store, dummy. Without iTunes Store, there would be no music industry as we know it left today.

Covert writes, “Interestingly, during that same time, people have been buying more music than ever. How is that possible? It’s because the iTunes Music Store popularized the cheap digital single.”

MacDailyNews Take: Oh, boo-f’ing-hoo, the music cartels can no longer hold good music hostage by bundling it with twelve throwaway tracks o’ crap and charging $15 for the forced bundle etched onto a 3-cent plastic disc in a 10-cent box with a 15-cent booklet. By giving customers the à la carte option, Apple gave music buyers the power and took it away from the forced bundlers.

Covert writes, “After manhandling the major record labels during a series of now-legendary negotiations, then-Apple CEO Steve Jobs was able to initially offer digital albums for $10 and any individual track off that album for 99 cents. That changed the music industry forever.”

MacDailyNews Take: They deserved to be manhandled (and more) for ripping consumers off for decades, for ignoring the Internet, and for positioning their industry for sure death. Steve Jobs saved the music industry — contrary to CNNMoney‘s actual load of BS headline, “A decade of iTunes singles killed the music industry.” We helpfully fixed their lie with our headline. You’re welcome, CNN. It makes you wonder, though, what else is CNN lying about?

Covert continues, “When music sales reached their peak in 2000, Americans bought 943 million CD albums, and digital sales weren’t even a blip on the radar. By 2007, however, those inexpensive digital singles overtook CDs — by a wide margin — generating 819 million sales to just 500 million for the CD.”

MacDailyNews Take: Again, thankfully and finally, Apple took the power from the forced bundlers and gave it to the consumers. In iTunes Store, consumers always retained the choice to purchase the entire bundle (album). The massive extent that they did not choose bundles only shows how ubiquitous and manipulative the music lables’ forced bundling had become. Apple gave the consumer the power to decide, they way they once did before the music cartels invented the artificial construct they called the “album” in order to force consumers to wildly overpay for what they really wanted.

Again, iTunes Store has always offered consumers the choice to purchase the entire bundle (album), if they so desire.

Covert writes, “The popularity and ease of downloading cheap digital singles has transformed the industry. Not since the vinyl era has the single been this popular. The smaller, cheaper “45” record dominated music in the 1950s and ’60s, but the music industry wised up in the ’70s. Vinyl, cassette and CD singles were always cheaper for consumers, but manufacturing costs were not. Nor was the space required to house them in stores. Thus, the single became harder and harder to come by. The reality is if singles were as available a decade ago as they are now, they would have been just as popular. Music nerds notwithstanding, the average music listener has really only cared about a few tracks off an album at most.”

MacDailyNews Take: Exactly. Schizo much, Adrian?

Covert writes, “Can music sales ever come back? Likely not, says NPD analyst Russ Crupnick. He believes musicians will have to increasingly rely on touring, merchandise sales and endorsement deals to make up for lost album sales.”

MacDailyNews Take: Music sales are where they are because Apple destroyed forced bundling, handing music consumers back control of their wallets, and because free (pirated) music abounds on the ‘Net.

The forced bundle album decades were an artificial bubble. The music cartels got hooked on fleecing their customers, among other things. Apple simply popped the bubble and returned the industry back to its beginnings.

Without Apple, there would be no music industry as we know it today. That there is, in the face of readily available piracy sources, is proof that a decade of iTunes singles saved the music industry. The music industry can generate more profits by making more tracks that people want to buy, not by forcing them to overpay for bundles they have unequivocally proven that they do not want. The music cartels will never get that type of power back again and that is A Very Good Thing™.

Covert writes, “Nevertheless, the iTunes Music Store’s effect on the way people buy music over the past 10 years has ensured that the music industry will never again be the same.”

MacDailyNews Take: Thank Jobs!

Full article, Think Before You Click™, here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Chris Renaldi” for the heads up.]

A decade of iTunes singles saved the music industry

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