“Apple boasts about putting 10,000 songs in music fans’ pockets, but disgruntled British iTunes Music Store customers say Steve Jobs’ service just doesn’t measure up,” Robert Andrews reports for Wired News. “Jobs last week fronted a high-profile European launch for the popular download service, but was forced to go live without dozens of key artists such as The Strokes and The White Stripes, after falling out with the continent’s acclaimed independent labels.”
“Negotiations broke down on the eve of the debut, and Apple still hasn’t been able to offer an online licensing deal deemed acceptable to the indies, which make up a quarter of all European music sales,” Andrews reports. “The Association of Independent Music, which represents 820 U.K. labels, does not want its members to commit to the three-year, fixed-income deal it said is on the table.”
“Angered, many consumers have turned the iTunes software against its maker in a public demonstration against the shortage. Using the music service’s built-in playlist-sharing feature, they have created iMixes with titles like ‘iTunes needs more indies!’ Other users have used the song-ratings facility, designed to let listeners score each others’ taste in tunes, to vote the protest mixes to the very top of the [UK] iMix chart — an embarrassing marker of discontent,” Andrews writes.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’ll all work out, we hope. An aside (we’re just wondering), how “independent” can you be if you belong to an “association” that represents and negotiates for 820 labels as one?
They are not going to sign the deal in the week following the announcement. Think about it, it is cool if Apple got them to sign before the announcement. Otherwise, they will wait for a month or so to find out who needs who more. So, just hold on and wait, things will fall in to their respective places.
They will just see what they are missing out on, and then join in. Also Apple may give in on the three year part possibly down to 24 months, but why would you want less?
Not very “independent,” more like “union.”
Hopefully Steve Jobs will go “Reagan” on this union’s ass, too.
yet another attempt to downplay the iTunes and iPod success. why don’t they go elsewhere, these complainers? see what the real alternatives are, and how apple stacks up after all.
to me, it’s just an indication of how great the iTunes music store is. the format, design, and integration with the iPod is such that people are desperate to use it if they could find their favorite music.
of course, the above article doesn’t care to mention that it was the Indies’ attempt to get more than anyone else that caused the breakdown. so, is it really Apple’s fault? same deal for everyone else, but somehow the Indies think they can raise the price at their option later on? what on earth kind of lame deal is that? if it’s good enough for the others, why not for the Indies?
clueless people… blaming apple for everything. why don’t they haunt their favorite artists to sign onto iTunes? freaking idiots. maybe I should yell at Apple for not making iPod adapters with my 1995 Saab without a cassette deck. yeah, that’s the right place to vent. Not Saab, of course.
From what I hear, the indies did not expect iTMS success anywhere near the scale of what Apple announced (800K songs the first week)
In retrospect, some labels are kicking themselves for allowing themselves to be dragged away with certain more tenacious parties.
The throwaway comment against unions does absolutely no service at all. Independent labels have no option but to group together in order to get their voice heard alongside BMG, Sony, et al.
It was grossly unfair and a huge mistake for Jobs to attempt to shackle the indies to a fixed term deal. As the piece points out, they represent 25% of music sales in the three bigges markets [UK, Frnace, Germany]. It is foolish to ignore that, or for MDN to join in with the cheap jibes, and commercial suicide if iTunes ignores them for much longer.
Remember there are some major bands (and more importantly, big sellers) on indie labels that are almost completely unrepresented on iTunes UK: Radiohead, The White Stripes, The Strokes, Oasis, Orbital, Supergrass, Gomez, Basement Jaxx, Franz Ferdinand… are just a few. There are many, many more.
People are morons, acting that way because the Indies aren’t there yet. Before posting an idiotic iMix, maybe they should ask themselves why the Indies aren’t there. Did Apple not give them an opportunity? No, they were given the same deal everybody else was. They didn’t take it because they’re really no different than the big labels. It’s all about greed. Maybe instead of posting their crappy iMix, they should bombard the Indie labels e-mail and tell them to quit being so greedy.
LimeWire then — the indies can negotiate terms there as much as they want and it won’t make a pickle of a difference. Perhaps they’ll come to some agreement after consumers have blown their year’s budget for music (next month).
xfactor is also good fileshare.
They felt the terms of a contract with Aplpe were not reasonable. So they didn’t sign. It’s not Apple’s fault, it’s not the Indies’ fault. It’s just that a business deal fell through. It may turn out to be the right decision or the wrong decision, who knows yet ?
The UK “indies” are displaying a remarkable degree of shortsightedness and greed. They point to their 25% share in the same way that the majors do when demanding outrageous fees, and in doing so, indicate that they are really no different that Universal, EMI, or the others.
Unless you’ve worked in the music industry (and sometimes even then), it’s difficult to grasp how complex and cumbersome it is to have multiple rates between content owners who all demand “most favored nations” protections. Basically, if the indies get more, the majors will be entitiled to more, and consumers will ultimately suffer.
Do any of you posters critical of the UK iMix people actually KNOW the details of the deals between Apple and the big record labels? ‘ndelc’ is busy calling these people morons and idiots, but provides no evidence to support his claim they [the indie labels] were given the same deal as Sony.
If it is so, please post a link to the site. If you can’t support this claim – then keep name-calling out of your posts until you have the facts.
In the USA the Indies got the same as the big 5. If they turned down the same terms as the big labels in Europe then they are idiots. If they were not offered the same deal then they should be ‘on strike’.
“The throwaway comment against unions does absolutely no service at all. Independent labels have no option but to group together in order to get their voice heard alongside BMG, Sony, et al.” – charlie
Maybe so. But what makes independent labels “independent”? By deferring the negotiation to the “union,” are they still independent? IMHO, independent labels should be represented as a group in areas other than signing artists and business negotiations. They get their concern heard, and yet they retain their independence from making their own decisions and deals.
Wikipedia has an entry that is insightful, IMO… The idea of independent labels has changed as the major labels create “indie labels” to deal with artists they don’t want to pull or who don’t want to be pulled into the majors. Indie labels also rely on licensings with the majors. That is, indie labels are not that independent anymore.
“In the USA the Indies got the same as the big 5. ” – Al
Link?
“That is, indie labels are not that independent anymore.” – Nobody
I agree. But there are some truly independent labels in the UK [I believe Mute and Rough Trade are two good examples that come to mind], that when faced with a giant like Apple Computer across the negotiating table, will feel a little intimidated and want to form a cooperative bloc for that purpose.
Plus, you might be overlooking one obvious point – if these indie labels are merely owned by the majors [for product marketing reasons], then a contract with the major is a contract with its ‘indie’, n’est pas ?
In any event, I’d guess that EMI, Sony, BMG etc aren’t going to open up the minutiae of their contract with Apple for all the world to see. Assuming that could well be the case, I’m not sure how all the posters on here can so confidently confirm what deals actually took place.
As I said earlier, show me the evidence. I want to believe Jobs wasn’t trying to muscle the indie labels into an inferior deal.
quote Al:
> In the USA the Indies got the same as the big 5.
Not true. The Indies got the same contract as ONE of the big 5, but it were the terms of that one who negotiated the worst. I read it somewhere on a newspaper-site, but don’t have the source at hand.
Sounds like the indies are all whining about it to me. If I was offered 1 penny per track of mine that was sold on iTunes, that would be awsome. They are already getting more than signed bands with larger record companies since the label’s costs aren’t included in the picture. They are just a bunch of whiners.
“but disgruntled British iTunes Music Store customers say Steve Jobs’ service just doesn’t measure up”
Measure up to what? CD sales? Of course. Not yet anyway.
Patience is a virtue. Whining is not a catalyst
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In the short run the ‘indies’ have some leverage, as iTunes attempts to build the biggest library FAST.
In the long run the future is legal downloads. And IMHO the kind of people who buy indie music will favor legal downloads.
MUCH easier to find. Distribution will be easier and cheaper. The internet FAVORS ‘small run’ and esoteric ‘art’. BUT the producers of the product have to cluster in one or two major areas. Just throwing up a web page doesn’t make it, unless you are already established
iTunes is the future.
(if you ask me)
DV
Bands like The White Stripes and The Strokes suck, I think apple is just trying to help them out with there stupid music taste.
“Bands like The White Stripes and The Strokes suck, I think apple is just trying to help them out with there stupid music taste.” – Jack W
What an idiotic comment.
If you can’t say anything constructive and intelligent then clear off back to kindergarten.
Charlie, actually if you re-read my post, I was calling the people who are posting fake iMixes onto iTMS morons and idiots. The indie labels I merely called greedy.
I don’t have time to search for a link, but I do recall reading that in the U.S., the indie labels were offered the exact same deal as the big 5. I’ve never seen anything saying that they were only offered the worst deal. I’m not saying it’s not true, but i’ve never seen it (and most regulars here know that I probably spend more time reading Apple news from various sites than I do working
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