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Is this the future of music, punters buying only the songs they like as opposed to albums featuring maybe only three tracks you want to hear?


Apple Computer Inc. said Monday that its iTunes Music Store has sold 25 million songs in less than eight months, solidifying its position as the early leader in the fast-growing market for downloadable music.
The results were encouraging to some in the music industry, which is trying to persuade music fans to abandon free downloading from file-sharing networks in favor of legal, fee-based services like Apple's.
But others noted that 25 million songs sold at 99 cents or less won't save any jobs in a slumping industry where CD sales are expected to drop an additional 9% this year.
Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said the music industry was just beginning to make the transition to online distribution, and "no one can really predict the curve of that transition."
But the Apple store is now selling about 1.5 million downloadable songs per week, compared with about 500,000 per week in September, putting the Cupertino, Calif.-based company on a pace to sell 75 million songs a year.
A large part of that increase stems from Apple's move in October to open the iTunes Music Store to people using computers running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows software. The original version of the store was accessible only to people with Apple Macintosh computers.
"So far, we're the only bright light they have right now in terms of legal online downloading as an alternative to illegal online downloading," Jobs said. "We've gone from zero to 75 million legally sold and downloaded per year in eight months since we launched at the end of April. That's not bad.
"I think if we can continue to grow, it's going to be quite material to the music industry at some point in time. They see the trend, they see the trajectory and they like it very, very much," he added.
Ted Cohen, senior vice president of digital development and distribution at EMI Music, said Apple's results were very encouraging.
"If you look back a year ago at this time, there was no significant commercial market for downloads," Cohen said. "This shows that with good marketing and a good consumer experience, you can have a successful business and compete with free."
Apple's store is the most heavily promoted online music service, but the company is likely to face much stiffer competition soon. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the largest CD retailer in the U.S., is expected to launch a preliminary version of its downloadable music store this week, and online shopping giant Amazon.com, Microsoft's MSN and other powerhouse brands are expected to join the field next year.

If the above scenario is the future i think it's great. Stealing music via illegal downloads should obviously be stopped but a system like Apple's iTunes where you pay about 60 pence each for the exact songs you want is a perfect way to buy music; cheap, accessible, user friendly ??and hopefully an end to the profiteering of the big music companies.

File sharing will never die! if you know where to look, you can even upload songs to your own site, under a coding system, that only you and your punters understand, the genie is well out of the bottle, the real greedy bastards are the large record companies, they always have been, and if they were allowed to, they always will be, for every site like kazza, napster etc that closes down, another will open, the choice is to go into a retailers and pay a grossly inflated price or dont buy, if there was no file sharing and punters stopped buying CD,s in retail shops, record companies would probably go bust, so Apple corps becomes the middle man, they pay the record companies, you pay them, same shit different day!.
The bottom line is CD,s are too expensive in the UK, like everything else, so people exploit this and a black market appears. I wonder, Is it just a coincedence between apple launching thier i-pod, then pay per download music!

Last CD I bought was the Red Hot Chili Peppers greatest hits, as it came with a DVD featuring the videos too. Now if more CDs were of similar quality - it cost me 15 quid and the DVD has loads on it, as well as the audio CD - then I would buy more.

Same applies to porn really - if it's a quality disc at a good price then I'll buy it.

Having worked in the music industry, it's the overuse of research and focus groups which has meant that Simon Cowell's cover versions and the other blandness around appear more popular than I suspect they really are.

Sadly music which actually has some depth to it, but isn't so instantly familiar with a catchy jingle-like hookline, is the loser. People want instant success, and don't seem prepared to give something new or different a try. I don't ever see a song like Bohemian Rhapsody being made again.

There are some classy bands out there!, but no one gives them a deal anymore, because the record companies want instant profit, a good example of someone trying to buck the trend is the Darkness, they wrote and produced and marketed their own product, and as I said in Buttsies thread re music, they might be taking the piss out of glam/70,s/ 80,s rock, but they do it well, and the albums is well produced, well worth a listen at ?9.97 Tesco,s or Sainsbury, ?12.99 at HMV unless you buy two, greedy bastards!

i-pods, rock!

The Darkness' CD is great, I'll agree, but I don't think they're taking the piss. Yes, it's a little tongue-in-cheek, but more of a sincere return to a rock sound you can tap your foot to rather than slash your wrists. Much needed, as is the relatively short lengh of the album. I am sick and tired of buying new albums that are sixteen tracks long, take an hour+ to finish, and thus way outstay their welcome. Ironicaly, it was CDs that brought this about, with the assumption that quantity somehow equals quality in order to justify their cost (Jacko's later releases being prize examples). The result is albums that, as it's been said, often have just 2 or 3 standout tracks and an awful lot of filler - which has partly led to the download dilemma we have now. A return to ten-track albums that offer uniform quality and strong repeat play appeal wouldn't be a bad idea (and maybe they could knock a quid or two off too).

--
"Let's do it..."

Nothing stays the same forever

Just like downloadable porn it won't really take hold unless a greater portion of the community owns a computer

For someone who buys CDs every week as i did in my teens and twenties it might be an alternative but now I've got a decent collection together I don't see the need for anymore

Then theres always the free tunes on the Radio

cheers
B....OZ