Hidden Agenda

23 September 2005 in News, Popular Culture, Rants

Believe it or not, music executives do not have the consumers best intrest at heart.

I have been an iTunes user for 3 years now. For me, when it comes to listening to and purchasing legal music downloads nothing is easier and more flexible than iTunes. For .99 cents a song I’ve become my own DJ. I can buy only the songs I want and I can purchase most albums for $9.99. Apple also offers iTunes Originals, your favorite songs and the stories behind them from influential artists such as Sarah McLachlan and Alanis Morrisette for under ten bucks. Steve Jobs, Apple’s top dog, has been adament about the .99 cent song price since iTunes inception. The music buisness embraced Apple and easily agreed to the price structure. They were despearte to break the illegal download buisness. iTunes, within a matter of days, rocked the world and turned millions of people into legal downloaders. iTunes effectively saved the music industry which, at the time, was beginning to see the first major losses of the download era. iTunes allowed the record companies to legally get downloadable music into the hands of consumers and still retain control. That is when the dollar signs began flashing. When iTunes became the phenomenom that it is, music execes suddenly turned on this new technology. Record execs began to push jobs to raise the .99 cent cost. They began to whine and complain. They again started crying that downloadable music was hurting their buisness. Jobs called the greedy. So do I.

Today I got a little hint at their greediness. A Reuters article shed some light on just how greedy record execs truly are. Warner Music’s Edgar Bronfman might be wishing he could retract a statement he made last week at an investor confrence. I’ve bolded his touchy comment below.

Record executives, however, are seeking some flexibility in prices, including the ability to charge more for some songs and less for others, the way they do in the traditional retail world.

“There’s no content in the world that has doesn’t have some price flexibility,” said Warner Music Group Corp. chief executive Edgar Bronfman at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia investor conference here. “Not all songs are created equal. Not all albums are created equal.

“That’s not to say we want to raise prices across the board or that we don’t believe in a 99-cent price point for most music,” he said. “But there are some songs for which consumers would be willing to pay more. And some we’d be willing to sell for less.”

Think about that for a second. What he is effectively communicating is that he believes that he can suck more money out of consumers for hot, popular music. He is saying that he can manipulate you, the consumer, into paying whatever he wants you to pay for your favorite artists. In theory, an artist could be an .88 cent artist one week and a $1.50 artist the next. I am begining to see what the real problem is in the music buisness. Leadership. Small-minded, money grubbing leaders.

Sony Music wants to thank you for legally purchasing their music by adding an enjoyment tax. Here’s to you, music execs! Way to ruin the party!

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23 September 2005 News, Popular Culture, Rants

5 Comments to Hidden Agenda

  1. Being an iTunes user for a year now, I totally agree with your point…and Steve’s. Let’s also keep in mind music studios already make more profit on downloads than CDs. Let’s hope Steve holds strong to price inflation…or to a subscription service.

    2. Scott on 23 September 2005

  2. Hey man. Long time. Not to be Mr. Killjoy or anything, but I am more apt to believe that Jobs is upset because he believes sales will suffer at a higher price. 99 cents is still a good profit margin for iTunes and Jobs’ net worth is higher than ever. Now that articles like this have made him out to be the voice of the masses, few will believe that he could actually just be covering his own rear end.

    Just my thoughts.

    3. It's Proctor! on 23 September 2005

  3. Proctor!!! What’s up man? How are things? What are you up to?

    I think we’re both right. Of course jacking with the cost of online music will drive down sales. I think that it will also turn people away from not just online music but sales all across the board will go down for a while. It is the equivalant to the hockey lock-out or baseball strikes. Fans will be upset for a while. There will be hurt feels between the music execs, Jobs, and consumers. After a while though, everyone will live like the fickle residents of Springfield and re-elect Mayor Quiby for a third term. Prices will level out and our children will be none the wiser.

    4. Micheal on 23 September 2005

  4. Hey man. Not much here, just keeping busy. I live in Arlington, VA now and work in DC as a political (and sometimes marketing) consultant. I’m married, but I think you knew that.

    I agree, we’re probably both right about Jobs. I just like interjecting into Pro-Apple conversations. I’m a glutton for punishment, what can I say.

    5. It's Proctor! on 23 September 2005

  5. [...] I have never made my feelings for the Recording Industry Association of America a secret. I have always been pretty honest with my belief that the record execs do not have the public’s best interests at heart. We have seen their true colors through the recent payola scandals and their squabbles over the 99 cent price point for the iTunes music store. [...]

    6. The RIAA is on a Roll at Kicking at the Darkness // MichealFelker.com on 22 May 2006
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