08/29/2008, 4:05pm, EDT
Friday, August 29th
Artists avoid iTunes; singles discourage album sales
Many artists and record labels are beginning to see a darker side to the success of iTunes, according to Wall Street Journal. Apple has maintained a strict policy of requiring each song to be available individually. Although the music might be reaching more customers, companies are beginning to notice record sales being cannibalized by singles. For the customer that just wants the song they heard on the radio, the only incentive to buy the album from iTunes is the possibility of a price cut.
Kid Rock has been vocal about his disdain for iTunes, and has vowed to keep his new music from being sold there. "So when everyone was telling me that I had to release my single on iTunes because they own the market and that's just what you've gotta do these days, I decided that I wasn't going to do it" he said in an interview with MTV. The decision hasn't been bad for him, the album Rock N Roll Jesus debuted at #1 and has sold over 1.7 million copies so far, with sales increasing for 19 of the past 22 weeks.
Atlantic pulled one of their artists from iTunes last week, R&B singer Estelle. Although her music was being sold there for months, one of her singles had just moved into the top ten list of best selling tracks. Atlantic is also Kid Rock's label, this decision was clearly not a coincidence.
A number of labels and artists would prefer to see their music sold as an album. Some want the higher profits from a CD, while others feel selling a track at a time is like selling a book by each chapter, effectively reducing its value as a complete work of art.
iTunes surpassed Wal-Mart as the largest music retailer in the US earlier this year, with over 5 billion tracks downloaded since its debut. Some artists are beginning to feel that the sheer size of iTunes makes it the only choice for significant exposure; no other company even comes close. Many complain of the inflexibility, such as the standardized pricing of 99 cents per song. Another abrasive policy is iTunes' exclusive selling rights contracts exchanged for more exposure within the program.
The music business has historically been resistant to change, and blaming so many problems on iTunes could be construed as extremely biased. Many people see iTunes as a beacon of light in a struggling industry, appealing to the shift toward downloading but offering a legal and profitable alternative.
The most vocal complaints have come from big label pop stars like Kid Rock, but what about independent artists? Acoustic guitarist Kate Walsh represents another segment of the industry, according to thisislondon.co.uk. She recorded an album in a friend's bedroom, posted the music on Myspace, then on iTunes. Her album was at the top of the download charts last year.
"This is an incredible achievement when you consider Kate Walsh is unsigned and still outsold several major international artists," said iTunes Europe director Oliver Schusser. "The record labels are queuing up to sign her now."
Some of the big record labels complain about iTunes policies, but what they can't fight is the demands of consumers. People have shown a strong preference to individual song downloads, and illegal downloading is still prevalent. Many new artists are provided with the exposure to share their music with the world. The digital age has brought great opportunity in the music industry, with companies like iTunes at the forefront of capitalizing on that potential. There are still more changes to be made, and plenty of room for competition.
, 
, 28
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
Top
subscribe to comments
for this article
Labels don't get it
The labels don't get it. Give us great albums with great music and we'll buy them. Give us an album with a couple of good songs and filled out with mediocre material and we'll skip the album and just buy the good stuff.
Besides, once you were able to buy singles (45s) and the album business grew from that. Perhaps albums, themselves, were simply an abnormality that grew out of pressing and distribution costs...
The Customer is Always ..
Right! The music business is going to change over the new few years whether it wants to or not. The survivors are going to be the ones who adapt, while the rest...
Why would Kate Walsh need to sign with a label now? Perhaps she likes sharing her money with leeches?
write more good songs
So they would rather we pay $20 for one song rather than $1. Why don't the artists just write better songs, instead of complaining that we don't like their crappy ones?
math problems
Can Macnn.com get their software to count correctly? I added a comment and there were 2 comments. It shows up on the page where the comment is that there are 3 comments, but when I clear my cache and reload the news page, it says just 2 comments.
I'm absolutely crushed
that I can't buy Kid Rock's music on iTunes...not!
To each his own. This is not news.
Not always so
I see plenty of songs on iTunes that aren't available as singles and must be purchased as part of a larger album.
Look around, you'll see "Album Only" tracks often enough. Check out "U2 Singles" The Game's "LAX" and plenty of others.
Enjoy...............G
Funny...
...how Kid Rock can be such a rock'n'roll rebel and an industry puppet all at the same time - now that's talent!
McD
Quality = album sales
I have at least three current artists for whom I will purchase any entire album they release, based on my past experience with their music. I have learned that there are virtually NO tracks they have released that I do not like. The same applies to some classic artists, whose albums are again becoming available, due to the convenience (to the record labels) of selling them on iTunes as a download, rather than pressing / burning a physical sale of the music.
As the other comments have stated, artists need to be more than "one hit wonders", and the sales will follow.
Albums in a Singles world
Wow, the labels/some artists just don't get it. iTunes has provided a radical infusion of digital music buyers(like me!) who will buy 1 to 3 tracks average of music from a CD off of iTunes or Amazon for 0.99 each VS NOT paying $10 for a CD...and I won't buy that CD just for those 1-3 songs.
So, iTunes offers me the ability to legally pay for music in smaller pieces VS not buying it AT ALL. I know there are more "ME's" out there doing the same thing, so the record companies and artists need to stop cutting off their noses to spite their faces.
BTW, I don't care for Kid Rock, so him not being on iTunes doesn't impact me at all...it's his slimmer wallet that is impacted....not mine.
Inaccurate and Outdated
The record industry, artists and MacNN are inaccurate in their perception of iTunes.
I do not believe that iTunes forces any artist to sell all songs from an album as singles. In fact, on several albums I have checked out, the only way to buy the tracks that I really wanted—as well as to get bonus content such as a digital booklet or music video—was to buy the entire album. Clearly, if Apple mandated an all tracks must be made available as singles policy, this would not have been the case. Clearly, if Kid Rock or any other artist or label did not want singles available for download, they could make it so.
I was going to say that the record industry and these artists stuck in outdated thinking. However, it really is a case of being ignorant of history and ignorant as to how the recording industry thrives in other cultures.
For more than half of the time that the recording industry has been in existence, artists and the industry thrived on the sale of singles. LPs really were never more than collections of tracks that had been released as singles over a period of time. It wasn't until the 1960's that artists began to record albums that were more than collections of previously singles and used the continuous play feature of the LP as a form of artistic expression.
History aside, the recording industry in many countries thrives on singles. In Japan, for example, artists release CD Singles that contain 1-3 tracks and then a couple of remixes of the main track. An artist will release a couple of these CD Singles over a period of time and then the label will combine the single tracks into an album.
Personally, I gave up buying music in the US for awhile because I got sick and tired of buying CDs for $15 to find that I only like 2-3 tracks. (I forgot to mention that you can rent audio CDs in Japan.) With the release of the iTunes Store, I started buying music again.
So does the record industry want my money or not?