iTunes Steals Music's Soul? 2006-05-16 by encmetalhead | 25 Comments | digitalaudioinsider.blogspot.com
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iTunes Steals Music's Soul?
That's the opinion of Tony Brummel of Victory Records, as he explains why Victory releases won't be showing up in iTunes. He's pissed that the Apple won't negotiate with the labels individually, but he's also upset about the death of the album. Here's Tony's guest editorial in Hits Daily Double (registration required):
I absolutely believe that allowing people to cherry-pick the tracks they want from each album cannibalizes full-length album sales and is ultimately detrimental to the artists who created the music...
It is important for people to experience the entire album. Not just a track(s). The artist went into the studio and created a body of work. If you were buying a painting from Picasso, would you have said, "Look Pablo. I like this painting man. But I only like that corner part with the tree and the guy's finger. How about you chop off that corner and I give you $1 instead of $10 for the painting? Is that cool? I really do not care about the rest of what you were trying to convey in that piece of work." The artwork, the lyrics, the sequencing of the album typically tell a very important story. It is a work of art! If people are being conditioned to not listen to albums in this way, they are nullifying the entire musical experience...at least in our genre as a rock label...
iTunes makes music disposable. It makes it a faceless impulse item. It steals its soul...
Bob Lefsetz responds in this post (and also paints an unflatteringly portrait of Brummel as a businessman). I think Brummel's dead wrong in his refusal to license albums to iTunes -- it's not as if the tracks aren't available for free on the file-sharing services anyway! He might not like the Apple contract, but why shoot yourself in the foot? I wonder how many (any?) of the artists signed to Victory agree with him on this issue.
Still, I have some sympathy for his lament about the death of the album listening experience. When taping albums as a teenager (you know, back when I was killing the music industry), I'd actually feel guilty whenever I deliberately skipped a track, that the resulting taped version wasn't true to the artist's intent.
Today, my iPod has pretty much destroyed my listening patience. It's gone far beyond not listening to full albums -- I get antsy halfway through a song and start scrolling around to decide on the next track. But it's unfair to blame the iPod for all of this -- the old album listening experience died with the introduction of the CD player with its next/skip button and the ability to "program" the disc. (And what about MTV, mix tapes, random songs on the radio, compilation albums, and a couple dozen mp3 downloads on the Victory website. Does Brummel have a problem with all of them as well?)
Here's some unsolicited advice for Tony: License your albums to iTunes, but only as one big, album-length track selling for $9.99. No more cherry picking and the album sequence is set in stone. Problem solved!
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macworld.co.uk
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'iTunes steals music's soul'
By Jonny Evans
Far from reinvigorating the music industry, iTunes "makes music disposable. It makes it a faceless impulse item. It steals its soul," a leading indie label executive has complained.
Victory Records' boss and founder Tony Brummel has defiantly refused to license any of his label's music through Apple's online music service. Speaking to the Hits Daily Double, he explained why.
"Apple/iTunes do not care about independent labels or, for that matter, the record industry. Without the music industry, their site and their iPods are useless," he thunders.
'What's the real deal?'
He asks why the major labels agreed to a deal which helped Apple sell iPods but also meant that in many cases consumers simply cherry-pick the songs on albums, with a knock-on effect of impacting artist incomes.
"Has anyone looked into any stock option kickbacks here?" he asks: "Since when do record companies give their content away without extracting an advance?"
It is believed that the major labels require substantial advances from digital music services in order to allow them the rights to even carry their content on their services. These advances are understood to be in addition to any profits made from a la carte track sales. Sources have claimed that these advances have recently been dramatically increased.
'Stand up, pull out'
Apple now carries a great deal of clout in the music industry, as its market share means it is responsible for a significant percentage of sales.
Addressing this, Brummel said: "If only 4 per cent of this business is iTunes, who cares? Focus on the 96 per cent which is traditional retail. Traditional retail supports music 1,000 times more than iTunes does."
He also explains that if the majors truly wanted to make a stand against Apple's insistence on a set pricing model, they would all "pull their content" from Apple's service.
"I absolutely believe that allowing people to cherry-pick the tracks they want from each album cannibalises full-length album sales and is ultimately detrimental to the artists who created the music," he explains.
Brummel doesn't mention his thoughts on music piracy - downloading music from peer-to-peer websites - and the damaging effect that has had on the music industry. Apple has always maintained that iTunes was part of the battle against online music piracy.
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ipodnn.com
Quote:
'iTunes steals music's soul'
By Jonny Evans
Far from reinvigorating the music industry, iTunes "makes music disposable. It makes it a faceless impulse item. It steals its soul," a leading indie label executive has complained.
Victory Records' boss and founder Tony Brummel has defiantly refused to license any of his label's music through Apple's online music service. Speaking to the Hits Daily Double, he explained why.
"Apple/iTunes do not care about independent labels or, for that matter, the record industry. Without the music industry, their site and their iPods are useless," he thunders.
'What's the real deal?'
He asks why the major labels agreed to a deal which helped Apple sell iPods but also meant that in many cases consumers simply cherry-pick the songs on albums, with a knock-on effect of impacting artist incomes.
"Has anyone looked into any stock option kickbacks here?" he asks: "Since when do record companies give their content away without extracting an advance?"
It is believed that the major labels require substantial advances from digital music services in order to allow them the rights to even carry their content on their services. These advances are understood to be in addition to any profits made from a la carte track sales. Sources have claimed that these advances have recently been dramatically increased.
'Stand up, pull out'
Apple now carries a great deal of clout in the music industry, as its market share means it is responsible for a significant percentage of sales.
Addressing this, Brummel said: "If only 4 per cent of this business is iTunes, who cares? Focus on the 96 per cent which is traditional retail. Traditional retail supports music 1,000 times more than iTunes does."
He also explains that if the majors truly wanted to make a stand against Apple's insistence on a set pricing model, they would all "pull their content" from Apple's service.
"I absolutely believe that allowing people to cherry-pick the tracks they want from each album cannibalises full-length album sales and is ultimately detrimental to the artists who created the music," he explains.
Brummel doesn't mention his thoughts on music piracy - downloading music from peer-to-peer websites - and the damaging effect that has had on the music industry. Apple has always maintained that iTunes was part of the battle against online music piracy.
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Once again proving that Victory records is full of twats.
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i have to agree with this cause that have their tv show as a podcast but they wont give the music to itunes? wtf? and besides he wants to be adouche by getting liek 7 8 dollars from album sells and they drop the bands that can help them get their label otu there(hatebreed, tbs, and SR is thinkign about leaving)
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Personally I like buying the cds instead then copying the onto my iPod. Hopefully iTunes and buying music online won't fully replace cds altogether.
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I don't think there's a single worthwhile band on Victory Records anyway, so that doesn't bother me in the least.
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I use iTunes for all of my music purchases. Period. Haven't bought a hard copy cd in a year and a half.
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Me and my pops had a conversation similar to this earlier today. He seemed to have won.
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I absolutely believe that allowing people to cherry-pick the tracks they want from each album cannibalizes full-length album sales and is ultimately detrimental to the artists who created the music...
What that self-important dick-cozy fails to tell you is that people like him are getting more money from the album sales than the artists themselves. It's not about the label's bands' paychecks, it's about his.
Jesus cross-dressing Christ, people like this really need to die of food poisoning.This Message Edited On 05.16.06
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then we wont have a *brand* new band that sounds just like panic at the disco
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This guy is a douche. He couldn't care less about the music.
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I don't buy off iTunes. But the music quality sounds fine to me :p
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Victory Records Is the Downfall of Music As we know...they treat every band on the label like shit anywyaz
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(victory record exect "Well Aiden, you have a great dark sound, but we are gonna slick up your production to where its barely listenable, not release your music on the biggest online file sharing network, and not pay you worth sh*t. Oh, by the way, if you see those guys from Hawthorn Heights, tell them they are doing a great job not using that 3 guitarist the way people might think. We gotta keep standards low here."
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I remember when Thursday got the shits with Victory back in the Full Collapse days, because the Victory marketing dudes wanted to create and sell Thursday whoopie cushions. Yeah, that really adds to their credibility as a band.
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how abotu i take over victory records give all the bands the money they deserve fire hawthorne heights tell aiden to do it like they want and tell TBS to get their asses back over here. then i will put their music on itunes. after that i will sign some orignal metal bands and get rid of the emo shit called june
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Is this guy really comparing his label's bands (Hawthorne Heights, Aiden) to Picasso? What an ass. Also what kind of retard gives their music to Rhapsody and not iTunes?
I'm glad Straylight Run, Taking Back Sunday and Thursday are off this shit label.
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I do my research before buying a new album and if it looks like a decent one then Ill buy the proper CD but there are alot of artists with one or two good songs so then I prefer to just download.
Also environmentally its alot better to be downloading instead of wasting resources on the plastics for CDs. I think its good that the worlds moving this way.
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Screw Victory Records
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Is this guy really comparing his label's bands (Hawthorne Heights, Aiden) to Picasso?
Why not? He's already touting his label as the savior of modern music. By the end of the month he'll just take the next inevitable step and compare himself to Jesus.
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Why is he complaining about "cherry-picking" tracks and all of that crap, when artists on Victory Records have singles?
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which record company is sr on now?
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I thought the the Picasso analogy was good. It's especially true for bands like Rush, Pink Floyd, and The Mars Volta who's albums are actually like a painting and need to be listened to as a whole. And It might just be me but it feels more natural to have the actual CD complete with a case and cover.
By the way how is the money divided when songs are bought of iTunes? Doesn't it just mean that the band get's even less. Because it's divided with the band, the label, and Apple?
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By the way how is the money divided when songs are bought of iTunes? Doesn't it just mean that the band get's even less. Because it's divided with the band, the label, and Apple?
There's not much difference at all, actually. For every album sold, the band themselves get maybe a dollar or two to split amongst themselves.
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Although that guy is probably just trying to add some to his paycheck, i still agree with him. downloading songs off any music download thing, for money or not, is cherrypicking, and you're really not getting the impression that the artists want u 2 have on their music. and besides, album tracks i find r always the best
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and you're really not getting the impression that the artists want u 2 have on their music.
Is that why artists like Jethro Tull handpicked songs for their compilation albums?
It's a bullshit reason not to get music online. Hell, had it not been for Kazaa and Limewire I never would have gotten into 80% of the bands I listen to now.
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limewire is awesome man
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