“Apple’s much-anticipated music streaming service has hit a stumbling block as label owners are split over the terms for what industry executives have dubbed ‘iRadio,'” Robert Cookson, Robert Budden, and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson report for The Financial Times.
“Despite signing up Universal Music, the largest of the record label majors, the iPhone maker is still negotiating terms with Sony Music, the second-largest recorded music group, while it is close to reaching agreement with Warner Music according to people with knowledge of the discussions,” Cookson, Budden, and Edgecliffe-Johnson report. “Some music industry executives argue that cash-rich Apple should pay a higher rate than Pandora, which had 70m ‘active listeners’ in April, because of its broader ambitions for iRadio. These include using data it already has from hundreds of millions of iTunes users to predict the selection of tracks they will enjoy, and a plan to allow listeners to purchase songs seamlessly via the iTunes store.”
MacDailyNews Take: Only in La La Land would providing a seamless way to allow the music labels to sell their product be a reason to make Apple pay higher royalties. Apple is doing the music industry a favor! Why do the music cartels continue to act like every bit of their product isn’t available for the price of a couple mouse clicks?
Cookson, Budden, and Edgecliffe-Johnson report, “Apple’s iTunes store is the music industry’s largest source of digital revenues, even as streaming has grown and download growth has stalled. Apple earned an estimated $4.3bn from music downloads in 2012, of which $3.4bn was paid to music labels, according to Horace Dediu, an analyst at Asymco.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
“…..Why do the music cartels continue to act like every bit of their product isn’t available for the price of a couple mouse clicks? ….”
Why, indeed ..?
… or free …?
(for those who insist on flying the Jolly Roger)
Just exactly who is much anticipating another streaming music service?
“iRadio” (or whatever it is to be called… if it will, in fact, ever come to fruition) will really be (like every “streaming” service) a venue for exposing people to music.
In other words… a marketing tool.
Instead of receiving what amounts to free advertising for their product and making Apple pay for promoting it…
I think the labels ought to be paying Apple for the privilege of having their product be carried on iRadio.
Oh leodavinci1. You get it! You genius you. OMG these media companies are so fracking self-destructive.
This is what happens to people who snort too much coke. Their decision making ability gets hampered.
I became convinced of this theory by reading the inane ‘Apple Bear’ analcyst bullshit over the last 6 months. I’ve sadly had to endure the rants of coked out authorities on everything. It’s an inevitable train wreck every time.
Everything Apple is doing lately seems to be hitting snags and the news media always seems to latch onto it. Negotiations usually never have a set time period. Terms always have to be agreed on by both parties. It’s a done deal whenever it happens. I just hope this doesn’t drag out for years. If Apple doesn’t sign trying to save money, someone else will certainly pay more money and get the rights.
iRadio is dumb.
I just used Ping to tell Paul McCartney.
Botviinnik is dumb, his comments almost always inflammatory. His intellect is lacking, much like his package. This is how he copes.
not quite as dumb as Ping and iRadio, however.
Greed
Plain and simple
Somebody thinks they need more money.
Again the media branch of our extremely stupid Corporate Oligarchy DOESN’T GET THE FUTURE. It’s too complicated for them. They’re stuck in the 1970s and have no comprehension of the fact that THEY are their OWN WORST ENEMY.
It’s simple: All ‘radio’, be it real or Internet streamed, is FREE MARKETING! FREE FREE FREE. So jump on that sucker and ride it!
But NOOOO. Instead the brain dead bozoids of the RIAA and MPAA ad nauseam want to GOUGE THE HELL out of anyone promoting their music for them in royalty fees. And they can’t decide what royalty GOUGING rates to use between one medium or another.
Hey RIAA ad bozoidium. That KNIFE in your back IS YOUR OWN!
The on going stupidity of the music industry continuously staggers me. Maybe apple needs to start a music label and offer the artists an alternative to the big 4 labels. I wonder how fast the labels would sign when they realise that artists would get a better deal from apple and better exposure/access? Divide and conquer. The Dr
I think NOFX said it best:
“Kick back watch it crumble, see the drowing, watch the fall.
I feel just terrible about it, that’s sarcasm, let it burn.
Gonna make a toast when it falls apart.
I’m gonna raise my glass above my heart.
Then someone shouts ‘that’s what they get'”
Dinosaurs WILL die!!
If that is true te music mindustry truly is a discussing place where slimy idiots gather for some reason.