Labels Make Another Dumb-Ass Move
According to the New York Times, in a desperate attempt to goose CD sales, major labels are considering stepping back a decade, and experimenting with the concept of not releasing advance single downloads from upcoming albums.
So just as iTunes hits it’s billionth download; and it’s clear that people are embracing downloading as a viable option the major labels decide, welllll, that ain’t good enough.
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Instead of launching into a huge rant about how stupid this is, I will let an expert summarize:
“The labels are shooting themselves in the foot,” said Tim Quirk, executive editor of the Rhapsody music service. To the labels, Mr. Quirk advises, “every single track that you are worried about is available for free whether you want it to be or not.”
“You need to take advantage of every possible opportunity for people to pay in legitimate ways,” he said.
Mr. Quirk, BTW, is a musician himself –Â having fronted the late, great Too Much Joy for several years — so he understands this issue from many angles, including that of the artist.
I just understand it from the point of the consumer: all I want is to have the choice of download or CD or stream of a single or an album. Is that so difficult? And if I don’t get that choice, I’m sure I can find it some other way.
Technorati Tags: Def Jam, itunes, downloads, CDs
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1 Comment(s) so far
1. Medialoper » Number 1 With A Pound Key wrote on April 11th, 2006 at 7:22 am
[...] In what is nearly the polar opposite of U.S. record labels trying to goose album sales by not releasing singles for downloads, the U.K. music industry is releasing a cell-phone only single. [...]