“Bob Seger turned the page, and Metallica finally found justice for online fans. Now, only a few remaining big-name musical acts refuse to make their songs available on Apple Computer’s popular iTunes Music Store,” Brian Charlton reports for The Associated Press.
Charlton reports, “Analysts say the online holdouts – including the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Radiohead and Kid Rock – probably can’t avoid iTunes forever as fans flock to the Internet to buy music.”
“But the artists argue that online distribution leaves them with too small a profit. And they say iTunes wrecks the artistic integrity of an album by allowing songs to be purchased individually for 99 cents. Some bands, such as AC/DC have released albums on other, more flexible sites, but not iTunes,” Charlton reports. “‘We’ve always thought certain artists put out albums that aren’t meant to be compilations with 50 other artists,’ said Ed ‘Punch’ Andrews, manager for both Seger and Kid Rock. ‘We’re hoping at some point albums become important again like they were in the past 30 years.'”
Charlton reports, “Seger, the Michigan rocker who entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, is considering releasing his classic 1976 album Night Moves but wants it downloaded only as an album, Andrews said. ‘It’s amazing how many people go there,’ Andrews said of iTunes. “We’re hoping albums work there.” Andrews said he wasn’t sure if Apple eventually would allow the album to be kept intact.”
Full article here.
If we want your whole album, we will buy it that way. If you want to try to force us to buy your whole album in the name of “art,” then you are highly confused and, frankly, you can keep your album. The album, which for decades have been simply a way to force customers to buy filler in order to get one or a couple of good songs is DEAD, thanks to iTunes. You want us to buy your whole album? Then write an entire album consisting of good songs, for once. What we hope Steve Jobs says to the online holdouts desperately clinging to the outmoded album concept: When you figure out what “art” and “freedom” and “customer choice” really mean and when you decide to treat your fans as people capable of making intelligent choices all by themselves instead of treating them as a revenue stream, then you can put your songs on iTunes for sale individually. Until then, twist in the wind.
Related articles:
Apple’s iTunes Music Store will change the album concept; artists should embrace change – July 29, 2003
New York Times: iTunes Music Store ‘working against the survival of the album’ – July 19, 2003
Motley Fool writer calls Jobs a ‘smug punk’ and worries about demise of music in album form – May 14, 2003
Plenty of groups have Album Only content on iTunes, why should Zepplin, et at., be any different.
Where is the Beatles? Paul should write a contract with iTMS, because he needs money for his ex-wife.
Where is the Beatles? Paul should write a contract with iTMS, because he needs money for his ex-wife.
You go, MDN!
Nuff said!
MDN: You rock! I read you all day, every day, and you hit it right on the head once again. BTW, who is Bob Seger and the heck is Metallica…never heard of ’em. Oh, I’m sorry…I WISH I’d never heard of them. “)
MDN said it best!
Why is it that Radio Head is not on itunes music store ? aren’t they Mac users?
yeah, not being able to download kid rock from itunes is a big loss. not.
As if I care!
Most music I like is not on iTunes!
btw: my mobile was stolen this weekend, so I bought a new K750i today with 1 GB memory. I wonder how apple will beat this one.
Before attacking me for posting this: My wife and I have together 4 iPods and we have some 1000 albums. 2 of them come from iTunes.
I agree with MDN….but the album from mr seger, night moves, is really very good….i have enjoyed every song on it….not to say others would too….but it is one of very few albums that i can listen to all the way through….
I love buying CD’s and listening to only a few songs on it…only to import those few songs into iTunes and throwing the CD into the back of my closet.
I don’t have a problem with bands who say that their work was written as an album and should only be listened to in it’s entirety. BUT those artists must also refuse to allow any of the individual tracks on that album to ever be played in isolation on radio shows, or to appear in subsequent compilation albums.
Anything less than that is pretentious twaddle.
The days of listfully laying in bed listening to an entire albumn cover to cover are an artifact of a time when there were far fewer entertainment options available and artists who made it were actually artists, no digitally remastered playboy bunnies.
Sorry, times have changed. There are several artists I will listen to an entire album of, but even my favorite artists get played via a custom playlist on my iPod rather then going to their album.
typhoon:
Metallica is on iTunes… they signed on. So, you shouldn’t snivel at them!
You tell them MacDaily. You echoed my sentiments exactly.
Heck the music industry’s donation to the english language: “One hit wonders”
Good movie too.
The day these artists stop releasing singles for radio/mtv airplay is the day I will buy into their argument about the integrity of albums. When promoting the album they are fine with a single being taken out of context on the radio or via a music video but when it comes to sales they suddenly change their tune and expect us to want every track. BS.
Seger’s “Night Moves” needs to stay as an album!!!
It’s that good. ‘Nuff said.
“concept albums” are an interesting… well… concept, but rarely has anyone been able to pull it off successfully and even then only a few of the songs on the album were really so good that you’d want to listen to them time and again. and in recent years there have been even fewer concept albums worth the time and effort to listen to them. but if these artists insist that their works be sold as albums only, so be it. the people who’re diehard fans will buy them in quantity, others will wait.
that being said, i agree with iSteve above.
I would think that Kid Rock and Zune’s immediate future are more closely matched. Permanent obscurity.
Demanding that you write a whole album full of songs that YOU like is ridiculous! That’s what’s cool about music is that not everyone likes the same thing – and so what if the artist wants the whole thing in a package? It’s their product! They can put it out however they want or are able to.
Long live the full lenth album/CD/whatever!!!!
Without it, all you have is random junk, and formulaic attempts to make a hit.
For every album like Led Zeppelin’s ‘The Wall’, which should be purchased whole, there are at least 1,000,000 albums that should be sold as singles because there is a lot of crappy filler out there.
Bob Seger’s ‘Night Moves’ is also one of the exceptions. There isn’t a bad cut on it.
The Beatles ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ is another.
Let the ‘real’ concept albums be kept intact, hack the crap out of the other 99%.
there’s something i remember hearing in regards to buying a house or car…
…regardless of what it is, an item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
i like the song Night Moves, i’d buy the song… but i’m not enough of a Seeger fan to want the whole album.
on the other hand i’m a big Steely Dan fan so i bought the whole boxed set at Borders which contains all their albums and i’ve also bought every disc of new material released since then.
to me Night Moves is worth spending 99¢… Citizen Steely Dan was worth $50. so like i said before, the people who want it will buy it, others will wait.
Who the hell is buying albums from these old artists on iTunes?
Who cares if The Beatles, Bob Seger or Led Zepplin are added?
These bands are dead. They are not releaseing any NEW music. I like some of their work, so I simply imported their CDs that I already own into iTunes.
If the “sanctity of the album” is so important to these artists, how do they justify releasing Greatest Hits compilations?
After all, these collections take individual songs out of context. And there’s certainly no “artistic integrity” involved — they are compiled and released for the sole purpose of making money.
While we’re on the subject, how did these “artistes” justify playing their songs out of album context when performing live?
It’s not about “art” — it’s about money or, in the case of the Beatles, about pathetic bitterness.
Music Business—only one of those words is important and it’s not “Music”. These “artists” slay me with their grandiose, megalomanic visions of the own “cultural” contributions to society.
If you don’t want to sell singles, fine, just don’t whine about it. After all, you have managed to maintain your precious artistic integrity and that’s the most important thing. Oh, but you’re frustrated because you could be raking in the dough if you would only “compromise” a little. Ah, well, with great power comes great responsibility and great art sometimes requires great sacrifice, yada, yada, yada.
The “album as art form” was an artificial construction based on technological limitations that have since gone the way of the dodo bird. Get used to a brave new world. If you have something to say, you can say it in 4 minutes or 45 minutes. If you don’t, well then you don’t.
“The album, which for decades have been simply a way to force customers to buy filler in order to get one or a couple of good songs”–
Depends. How’ bout “Thick as a Brick”? (Jethro Tull-Also another holdout.). See how ridiculous that arguement is rendered?
On the other hand, another of thier albums that ian anderson would certainly consider to be a concept, “Aqualung”, I would NOT be interested in purchasing in it’s entirety.
me= cut to the cahse. Yes, times have changed, and THAT’S THAT.
tempus- are you nuts?
Look up sales figures. ELP “Brain salad surgery” for example.
Led Zepplin CONTINUES to sell appr. $10-$20 mil per year. 1/2 of that to kids.
BTW, it’s PINK FLOYD’S The wall, which you CAN purchase, peicemeal, on itunes.
Now, let’s get the entire 80+ albums by the late great Frank Zappa on itunes.
I’m not a great fan of The Beatles, but I do think it’s a bit weird of them to stay away. Is it just sour grapes from the Apple Corps business??
iTMS Artist hold out = lost revenue
CD sales are plummeting. It’s not just because of piracy, it’s because there are LEGAL and more fullfilling alternative methods to acquire music for pleasure.
Metallica got on board because they want $$$ from online sales of their large catalog.
regarding the ‘artistic integrity’ of bands, how many singles did led zeppelin realease in their entire active career? none. they only ever released albums. (now before you start to jump up and down and say that whole lotta love came out as a single, yes it did, in 1997 – released by the company, not the band).
MW : job – it’s a good job if you can get it
A quick informal survey of the CD sales department at my local St Louis Walmart Supercenter.
People browsing five CD aisles……none
People hanging around the iPod and MP3 player counter….5
People browsing DVDs……3
People checking out cell phones…..1
CD’s, like cassettes and LP’s, will become a thing of the past. We’re starting to see it right at this very moment.
I haven’t bought a CD in 5 years.
HMV closed in Harvard Square, just no market for CDs.
Used CDs are selling like crazy, however, at smaller shops, just for them to be ripped into iTunes – for those people that want more control over the quality of the rip than using a p2p source.
I would pay for music through iTunes – if it were there to buy.
These holdouts are showing themselves to be the dinosaurs that they really are.
We’ll be on to RFID sub-dermal emotion-controlled media players by the time they get onto the MP3 bandwagon.
Big Al,
Pink Floyd did The Wall – not Led Zeppelin.
Some albums should purchased whole. As long as the option is given to do so, what’s the issue? Why force your “art” down the customers throat by making him buy the whole album “Night Moves”, when all he wanted was the song of the same name?
If some artists only want to sell their music in album format, that’s fine. It’s their right.
However, regardless of their right, there is no way they can compel anyone to listen to their music in an album format. Short of producing an album as one, long continuous piece of music without any breaks. Which I think would lose them them fans. Or buyers, at any rate.
I’ve bought some of the albums mention here. Aqualung, Night Moves, etc. For Seger’s Night Moves, I’ve found two, (maybe three, if I stretch it) songs that I care to listen to repeatedly. I just don’t care for the rest of the album and this is true of every album I have bought.
Well, I believe the customer should be able to buy exactly what he wants… and that means ala carte, if desired… but having said that, Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon” definately works as a complete album experience. Still, I’ve heard individual songs from DSOTM played alone, and they also work. Should be our choice now to consume what we pay for.
Problem with buying albums (true concept albums) on iTunes is… when the songs are blended, with no gaps between them, it’s really hard to re-create that with even entire album downloads, because they still come as individual AAC files (per song) and no iTunes option to ‘merge’ them, like when ripping from actual CDs. So, iTunes MS doesn’t really make downloading the album experience that great – it’s all about singles. Maybe for those who want the entire album (concept) it should also be available as a single file, so the transitions between songs is preserved. But, no solution is optimal, at least for now.
Also, I don’t get why certain albums on iTMS don’t have all the songs available, even as an album download. It gets a bit annoying to want a song, and that one song isn’t available, even though the album it was on is right there on iTMS. Seems strange to have contracts with artists that are written to exclude some songs from albums…
Digital music is going to kill CDs the same way that HTML killed books — that is to say, not at all.
If Pink Floyd can break the artistic integrity of their albums, anyone should be able to. Very few artists/producers can put together an album. Perhaps they can manage a collection of tracks, but an album – no.
I have said before, online music will change the recording industry. The main point of an album on iTunes is the case when the total price of tracks I want from one album is more than the album price itself – then I buy the album.
BTSOI,
Listening to downloaded music is exactly the same as listening to CDs. The one exception is lower download sound quality, which is indistinguishable to most people. Soon we may have lossless which will change that. Since downloaded music can be burned to CD, downloaded music can be listened to in the exact same manner as a CD. Therefore, nothing else changes from CD to downloaded music except that it’s usually cheaper, I can buy it how I want and I can go get a song right now and have it in about a minute.
On the other hand, HTML and digital books require an entirely new way of viewing text. It is not handled in near the same manner as a physical book. Not to mention that many people claim reading digital media is more strain on the eyes than text on paper.
Just the same, HTML does not replace books – it is more likely to replace magazines, occupational journals, and newspapers, which it slowly is. More importantly, there has already been a decline in CD sales and iTunes has passed many CD retailers in sales.
huh?,
In iTunes you can set the gap between tracks to “none” when burning a CD creating a continuous album. (Advanced:Burning:Gap Between Songs: None) This also maintains the tracks giving you the ability to skip around, which a single track wouldn’t allow you to do.
Also, you can set the crossfade in iTunes to 0 secs. Crossfade ruins the integrity of some albums like Dark Side of the Moon by blending the tracks together. (Playback:Crossfade Playback: 0 Seconds)
It would be great to have an iTunes option for this:
Buy the entire CD/Album and you get a CD quality or highest quality bit rate.
mac user 47:
That;s actually a pretty good idea!!!