“Some people find it hard to understand my man Jay-Z’s decision not to let iTunes break up his American Gangster album and sell it as single tracks. They say he’s fighting the future and losing out on sales from fans who only want to download singles. But I say it was a stand somebody had to take in the music industry. Jay is speaking for all of us,” Jermaine Dupri, president of Island Urban Records, blogs for The Huffington Post.
MacDailyNews Take: The album is an artificial construct developed by the music cartels to get more of your money for less effort. The album is – plain and simple – a bundling technique. Take some marketable material, add a greater percentage of filler, call it an “album,” pretend it’s “art,” and charge more than you could charge for just the worthwhile bits. While some small percentage of artists throughout the history of the album construct have taken the concept to an art form and more than few music customers have bought so fully into the marketing construct as to defend it passionately today, that does not change the fact that the “album” is a product bundle designed to collect more money for the good stuff by bundling it with a greater percentage of filler.
Originally, human beings did not sit around the fire singing “albums,” they sang songs. When the music industry began, they sold single songs, too. The “album” is a marketing tool that the music labels developed later. Is it “art” that an album is between 30-60 minutes? No, that length is based on nothing more than how much the recording mediums could hold at the time the artificial “album” construct began to be marketed.
In fact, Apple is offering to take into account money spent on singles for iTunes Store customers that later wish to purchase the “album” in which they were bundled, but the basic fact remains: iTunes Store’s ‘Complete My Album’ “service” is advertising masquerading as a feature designed to placate the music cartel’s abject horror that their “album” construct is disintegrating before their eyes. Disintegrating back to music’s natural form: the song; as it has been for hundreds of thousands of years before the marketeers began pushing the “album” construct. The music cartels’ know that you already bought the songs you liked and now, with Apple’s help, they want you buy the whole “album,” whether you really like or want the other songs or not – as usual. (Oh, how the music cartel misses the efficacy with which $15+ CDs containing one or two good songs bought them mansions, cars, and boats while keeping their noses well-powdered.)
Dupri continues, “More artists and producers are gonna take back control of how their art is sold because his strategy has paid off. Maybe Hova coulda sold another 100,000 to 200,000 units by playing it iTunes’ way, but he still had the number one album last week. He STILL sold 425,000 units. Even more, he’s proven you can still sell an album without those guys.
Dupri writes, “Jay made everyone realize that iTunes taking what we give them and doing what they want with it isn’t the way it has to be. He put the light on and made other people realize, ‘Oh these guys are just selling our music, they ain’t making it.’ If anything, WE made iTunes. It’s like how we spent $300,000 to $500,000 each on our videos and MTV and BET went ahead and built an entire video television industry off of our backs. We can’t let that happen again. These businesses exist solely because of our music. So if we as artists, producers and label executives stand up, those guys at Apple can either cooperate, or have nothing for people to buy and download on their iPods.”
Dupri writes, “Apple thinks that’s never gonna happen. They think that we as the record industry will never stick together. But Universal sells one out of every three records. All it’ll take is for Warner Music to say, ‘You know what, I’m with you,’ for us to shut ’em down. No more iPods! They won’t have nothin’ to play on their players! We can take back the power if we’re willing to sacrifice some sales to make our point.”
MacDailyNews Take: Is Mr. Dupri for real? Note: Under 3% of the music on the average iPod is purchased from the iTunes Store. The remaining 97% of the music can from ripped CDs (that people paid for already) and from, drumroll, please… piracy. BitTorrent, Mr. Dupri, BitTorrent. You take the music from iTunes Store now and we will simply take your music. And you’ll be singing for your supper on the sidewalk. That’s a tough fact, maybe, but a fact nonetheless. If Apple turned off the iTunes Store tomorrow, Apple would continue to sell millions upon millions of iPods. How soon theses music industry types forget that Apple sells their music for them and gives them actual royalties. Piracy offers no such luxury, Mr. Dupri. Remember that. Repeat it to yourself over and over. Remember also, that Apple saved what remains of your industry; without Apple, you’d have virtually nothing left by now. People who use iTunes Store PAY for their music, dumb ass.
Dupri continues, “Soulja Boy sold almost 4 million singles and only 300,000 albums! We let the consumer have too much of what they want, too soon, and we hurt ourselves. Back in the day when people were excited about a record coming out we’d put out a single to get the ball going and if we sold a lot of singles that was an indication we’d sell a lot of albums. But we’d cut the single off a few weeks before the album came out to get people to wait and let the excitement build. When I put out Kris Kross we did that. We sold two million singles, then we stopped. Eventually we sold eight million albums!”
MacDailyNews Take: See our first “Take” above.
Dupri asks, “Did consumers complain? Maybe so. But at what point does any business care when a consumer complains about the money? Why do people not care how we – the people who make music – eat? If they just want the single, they gotta get the album. That was how life was. Today we should at least have that option… Apple, why are you helping the consumer destroy our canvas? …Respect the craft!”
MacDailyNews Take: Mr. Dupri’s mouth, meet your foot. This is how they think, folks: We let the consumer have too much of what they want. Puleeze. That’s what you’re fscking supposed to do! A good business actually cares about consumer complaints, not ignores them, but the music cartels and the vermin that infest them lost sight of that little Business 101 nugget decades ago. The days of bundling 9 pounds of shit with every 1 pound of sugar and calling it “art” are over, no matter who whines and moans and cries. Dupri’s bleating is nothing more than the sound of a diseased industry dying. The long-out-of-control music industry will be reborn leaner, healthier, and better, with the truly talented making quality music for which people will gladly pay. Mr. Dupri, if you make a good album, we’ll buy it. If you don’t, we won’t. If you don’t sell singles, we will take them; or don’t you have enough proof of that, yet? This has nothing to do with Apple and everything to do with wrongheaded, “screw the customer” thinking. For far too long, they had us, now we have them. The consumer is rightfully in control now. Now that’s “art.”
“You see Hova wasnt digital yet, before Steve Jobs made the iPod.” – Jay-Z, “The Prelude” from the artificial construct music bundle entitled “Kingdom Come“
Dupri continues whining and moaning in his full article here.
For well over 10 years now I’ve had my teenagers keep me up with the new “music”. Most of it is crap and they all (6) seem to prefer Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton,AC/DC… and numerous other “old school” groups that did actually issue “albums”, that is a group of tracks that belong together. There are a few new artists of worth, but…??? Never did care much for the one hit wonders myself let alone these recent no hit wonders. Free music sharing might not be legal but it does appear unstoppable.
The anger aimed at Apple still amazes me. Welcome to the digital age, moron. It’s iTunes and the other retailers or Bit Torrent.
What a tool.
MDN is obviously not headed by working musicians who care about their craft. You guys are so far off the mark it’s remarkable.
Yeah, and someone should please inform JD and ex-crack dealer (“his Man”) Jay-Z that maybe we shouldn’t be making “art” around the life of a famous criminal. Enough with the glorification pimps, pushers and media whores, on iTunes or anywhere else.
Simple solution,
Just release the “album” as one large single with no breaks.
Done!
True Albums aka concept albums that tell a story:
Dark Side of the Moon (Pink Floyd)
Tommy (The Who)
The Wall (Pink Floyd)
American Idiot (Green Day)
Bat out of Hell (Meatloaf)
In the Wee Small Hours (Frank Sinatra)
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (The Beatles)
Semi Albums aka sort of a concept album:
The Black Parade (My Chemical Romance)
Year Zero (Nine Inch Nails)
Others?
We’d buy whole albums if albums didn’t suck. You don’t have to force someone to buy all of Dark Side of the Moon because it’s a real album. Start making them again and I’ll gladly buy one.
Ha HAH! The market speaks… a little too loud for these clowns.
Clearly, they’re using the standard PAF template … Pop Album Formula …
1 album. 12 songs. 1 good. 1 middling.
So, why would anyone pay 10 extra tracks of dross, when they can buy just the one or two on an album they like?
If they want more pay, they need to deliver a quality product.
I’d say their product really IS disposable. So why buy it at all?
I think we should be more sympathetic with these guys. I mean, just put yourself in these guys’ places:
Imagine you’re an artist with a mediocre talent. You churn out a bunch of stuff, but only a small fraction of it is any good. In the album-only era, you earned $$$$$$$$$. Oh yeah!! Byatches here, byatches there! Homies hangin’ out, tellin’ you how cool you are! Then along comes this damned consumer CHOICE thing, and now your income becomes $$$. Ouch! I mean, okay most of the songs on the album sucked, yeah, but you took the friggin’ trouble to record the lousy things! People oughtta have to buy them!! Right? Come on. Right???
Remember people!! You’re a famous rapper! Which means you’re a major a-hole. Your homies don’t hang with you ’cause you’re fun to be with. You kidding??? They hang with you because you’re throwing money around like it’s going out of style!!!! You WERE making a thousand times more than your talent was worth. Now you’re only making a hundred times more than you’re worth. All you’re homies? Gone! All your byatches? Gone!
It’s the Christmas season, people. Can’t you spare a bit of sympathy for this poor sod?
No, I can’t either. What they hey. I tried, though.
“We let the consumer have too much of what they want”
LOL! How DARE they offer the consumer what they want!
MW: Could. As in “Could this clown be for real?”
The argument made by Dupre and mangosquash that an album is a piece of art that is meant to be listened to in its entirety might be valid if they didn’t break the album up into singles. Further, they allow the radio stations to play the singles off of their albums, so they must be OK with people just listening to one song.
What it really comes down to is that they are money grubbers. I’d love to see Dupre and his crap boyz lose out because they are greedy. That would be payoff for an industry more interested in the almighty dollar than in making good music.
This is the shortest Album in history. 4:13?
I thought this was to be consumed as album only?
not music:
http://music.aol.com/video/blue-magic/jay-z/2007978
We have told YOU, jer-maine, to stop making crappy music – we’ve started buying “a la carte.”
Such a freaking cop out!!!!
Be an artist not peddler of perishable goods (bads).
someone tell that midget catfish to shut up.
his albums suck, he’d make no money if it wasn’t for his singles.
most complete albums suck – we learned that through all our tapes and cd’s in the 80s/90s.
like everyone always says, you keep fscking with the consumers, we’ll just take your shit without paying you. then what? you’ll be another no talent guy trying to sell his cd on the sidewalk at the mall. besides, the only thing jermaine dupri ever did was promote kriss kross and that lasted for what, 2 years?
Look, the digital age has effected all kinds of industry, for better or for worse.
I’m a cartoonist. I’ve always wanted to draw a cartoon strip for the papers. Look at the amount of newspapers left in America. How many folks under the age of 30 have actually purchased a newspaper.
Am I bitching that the damned “internets” are ruining my market? No. I’m trying to find new ways of selling my cartoon strip. Actually, the “internets” has given me MORE of a chance that my cartoons will be read.
The bottom line is simple – Make a good album and we will buy it. I doubt seriously that I would ever buy this guy’s music as it is mot my style, but I buy itunes singles when (like most albums) there are only one or two good songs on the album. I buy CD’s when the whole Album is good. Some Artists are so good that I blindly buy the CD because they rarely create a bad song.
If you can only sell your crap when you bundle it with your one decent song, then don’t blame use for buying the single!
Art is defined by the person enjoying it. If no one wants it it is not art it is trash. Most albums are a collection of singles grouped arbitrarily together, let us choose the art from the trash pile. You want to sell an entire album, then bring back the Rock opera (oops just let my age show).
and, as far as American Gangster is concerned, i bought it from target, ripped it into my computer and burnt 4 copies for people at work and another 2 for my roommate. Hmm, 6 people got the album for free because it wasn’t on iTunes. good call jermaine.
Who are these people? Hello?
I stopped buying music because I got sick of having to buy any number of trash tracks for the odd few I wanted. Now I buy lots from iTunes because of the freedom it offers and as such I have regained an interest in music generally. Exploiting thugs like Dupri on the other hand will only drive people away from his ‘clients’ and quite rightly too. Long may all these scum suffer for their lunacy for only a fool disrespects their customer.
Some people are never able to escape the notion they are a victim and choose an adversarial relationship with those they do business with, while others do not.
I respect the musician and the craft. They should be compensated every time they perform their art. If they choose to package their performance in any manner and license its use, how fortunate for those who enjoy it that they may have the opportunity to choose to license it under the offered terms.
Everyone is free to bring their effort to market and package it in the manner they choose. The market decides.
“They think that we as the record industry will never stick together. But Universal sells one out of every three records. All it’ll take is for Warner Music to say, ‘You know what, I’m with you,’ for us to shut ’em down.”
Uh, can you say “anti-trust?”
Wasn’t he one of the Jackson 5 – or was that Germaine Greer – I can’t remember. I guess when most albums are 3 goodies and 7 or 8 pieces of filler – well – the consumer votes with their dollars.
Oh, and will anyone know who Jay Z is in two years? Nah.
Rap is the Taco Bell of music.
Old fart speaking!
In one album, we have only one good song and the rest is often crap!
Imagine if this philosophy applied to other things, like cereal: What, consumers don’t like this brand? Well, let’s bundle it. If you want Cheerios, you have to buy Fiber One, Lucky Charms, and Wheaties too.
Trying to force people to buy your junk because you can’t keep yourself afloat with your jewels is … dumb. Charge more for the jewels, maybe … but requiring people to buy bundles? Maybe you need to realize you’re a loser that doesn’t deserve to succeed. (I know, it’s harsh … but true.) You can always get a day job at the grocery store.
interesting…I prefer iTunes’s model, however I would have to agree that the Major’s did make iTunes. However I would have hoped that they would have welcomed it and adjusted as well.
Meanwhile amazonmp3.com has Jay-Z’s album. Very curious about how amazonmp3 is doing in general