What is the iTunes Music Store?

If you are unaware of what the iTunes Music Store is, it's a new way to purchase digital audio. You buy Apple's DRM encrypted media files that only play in QuickTime or an iPod...

So what is wrong with the iTunes music store then? Isn't it the way of the future?

People are paying for songs on the iTunes Music Store because they think it's a good way to support musicians. But iTunes misses a huge opportunity. Instead of creating a system that gets virtually all of fans' money directly to artists, finally possible with the internet, iTunes takes a big step backwards. Apple calls iTunes "revolutionary" but record companies are using the service to force the same exploitive and unfair business model onto a new medium.

Cost

Let's keep this simple... The iTunes Music Store is not a good deal for its customers. Apple says many users are buying whole "albums" for $10-$16 each. That's less than the $21 store price, but used CDs at Amazon or ebay are around $8 and those come with the liner notes. If you don't care about liner notes, you can get a burnt copy of the CD from a friend for 25¢. If you send the musician a buck he/she is still making more money than they would if you purchased it legaly. In both cases you end up with a real CD and you can always use any program to rip it on to your computer or digital audio player. The best part about owning a CD, is that you don't have to deal with restrictions on how you use it. That is, unless you end up buying a CD with DRM (which you should return right away).

"Lossy" Means Loss

The iTunes Music Store's AAC files do not sound nearly as good as CDs. AAC is a lossy compression format. It shrinks the sound file by throwing away anything that a computer program thinks you won't be able to hear. The problem is that you can hear it. This loss might not be noticed while listening to your iPod on a subway, but when you get home, lie back on the couch and listen to your new iTunes album on a real stereo... Believe me, it won't have the same nuance, punch and presence that a CD has. A burned copy of a real CD will always sound better than a burned iTunes album! A standard audio track is 16bit @ 44kHz with 2 channels. That means the track is 1408kbit/sec. The best files you get from the iTunes Music Store have been cut down to a meagre 192kbit/sec! That means you lost more then 90% of the actual sound quality.

Keeping Progress at Bay

Apple says the iTunes Music Store is "better than free" because it's "fair to the artists and record labels". That is not true in the least. First of all, Apple gets three times as much money as musicians from each sale. Apple takes a 35% cut from every song and every album sold. That is a huge amount of money considering how little they do. Record labels receive the other 65% of each sale. Of this, major label artists will end up with only 8¢ to 14¢ per song, depending on their contract. Many of them will never even see this paltry share because they have to pay for producers and recording costs, both of which can be enormous. Until the musician "recoups" these costs, when you buy a song from the iTunes Music Store, the label gives them nothing.
(Sources: major label musician's cut and Apple's cut. For a thorough explanation of how recouping screws musicians, see Confessions of a Record Producer by Moses Avalon)

So why does Apple give artists such a raw deal? Because it's the exact same deal that artists have always gotten from the big five record companies. Despite huge new efficiencies created by internet distribution like no CDs to make, no distributors to store and ship them, no CD stores to build and run, artists receive the same pathetic cut. That is the disaster of the iTunes Music Store. Instead of using this new medium to empower musicians and their fans, it helps the record industry cartel perpetuate the exploitation. Apple might say it's not their fault! After all, they didn't write the unfair record contracts. But when Apple supports and profits from an obviously unfair system while telling customers that it's "fair to the artists", they are just as guilty. For years, Apple Computers has built a reputation for straightforward business. Ever since Apple started these "truth" ads, they have become just as petty as most evil corporations.

So if Apple honestly believes that the iTunes system is fair for artists, they should display the artist's cut next to each song and let their customers decide. If the artist's cut were clearly visible, more people would want to buy music from independent labels, which give musicians a bigger share of each sale. Apple should make the Music Store open and transparent so that customer choice can push major labels to do better. The major label mess was built on secrecy; when people can finally see how it works, it will have to change.

Another interesting thing is that people believe that the iTunes Music Store and the iPod are the only solutions out there. There are many other ways (much better too) then using an iPod and iTunes. Do some reasearch. Don't buy an iPod just because it matches your toilet.

Digital Rights Management (DRM)

Digital Rights Management is the idea created around the same time as the CBDPTA (See Microsoft, CBDPTA and the TCPA/TCG) to prevent copying of digital music. A DRM encrypted song (like all the ones you get from iTunes) is made so you can only put it on one medium, an Apple medium. If you want to burn it to a CD, or play it on Linux, you're SOL. Some might say that DRM isn't that bad, but two things are for sure: they are treating customers as potential thieves, and the rights we have now are much less than we've had. If that amount of rights were taken away from people, think of what they can take away next. I personally don't like the idea being forced into using Apple or Microsoft products. DRM is taking away our freedom and treating us like thieves.

The iTunes Music Store: A facelift for a corrupt industry

The iTunes Music Store is just a shiny GUI for the ugly, exploitative system that has managed music for the past 50 years. But now they are exploiting the end users much more with the DRM that is in every song. Thanks to peer to peer file sharing, we finally have a chance to break the major record label system... Every iTunes Music Store user who pays 90¢ on the dollar to middlemen props up the old regime and delays the day when corporations finally lose their stranglehold on music. Now that's something to feel guilty about...

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