Some Bands Say No to iTunes

This article does not ring true.

According to Reiter, Apple refuses to sell albums in their entirety unless the artists also allow the tracks on the album to be sold independently as digital downloads.

I've seen several albums that must be bought as a whole, so I think this is just an excuse. But it's their loss, not mine.

I don't get it, they release single-cd's all the time..

Those bands lost the money that I was willing to give them. There's no way that I would buy entire albums by them. But I would buy a few songs. If they don't want my money, fine.

"creative concerns" = greed

>"If you download a single, you may ignore the other tracks on the album,"
>he said. "When our artists record a body of work, it's what they deem to be
>representative of their careers at that time.

yeah right, that's why they sell singles on CD.

Seriously they don't seem to get it. If they don't offer people a way to pay for the download of the single, most people will simply download it without payment.

MrRivers

I can see this... I mean, when you used to have a tape deck.. you'd listen to the album through and trhough side to side.. now with cd's we lose that "album" feeling and just go straight to the track we want.. most people just listen to the same songs you can hear on the radio.... THAT is the loss....

I force myself sometimes to listen to new CD's through from a to z before I start pcking tracks, but even then, it's not the same feel. I don't get the entirety of the project from the artist.

music has changed so much.....

"If you download a single, you may ignore the other tracks on the album"

I usually ignore the tracks I don't like on an album which usually is about 50% of an album. It sounds to me they' ve lost connection with reality: not everybody wants all the songs they release. The alternatives have been to buy a single (if they release it) or to buy the whole album for a few songs you like. Why not change the way they sell their art? Greed? Maybe...

Anyway it's the hit singles that make a band big not the albums, isn't it?

Originally posted by Porshuh944turbo
I can see this... I mean, when you used to have a tape deck.. you'd listen to the album through and trhough side to side.. now with cd's we lose that "album" feeling and just go straight to the track we want.. most people just listen to the same songs you can hear on the radio.... THAT is the loss....

So the next step is that Metallica (or some of the other bands) tries to sue the company that invented the compact disc?

Ok.. I don't how you can realistically get to that conclusion... but ok...

Making exceptions to the "rules" for creative reasons--or simply to get big-name bands in the catalog--is not totally irrational. I can see the arguments for that.

BUT making exceptions (and there already are some, I know) encourages artists to violate one of the store's big draws--buying singles--AND makes extra work. (But that work is probably handled by the labels who upload the music--not by Apple.) Plus, Apple just told all the independent labels that there would be no exceptions--and that the big names would not get special treatment.

So I see two solutions:

a) Hold firm until the store catalog is much larger, with much/most of the independent music in there, etc.--and THEN start bending the rules a little to fill in some holes. The rules must then be bendable by holdout artists at small labels who share the same concerns--not just the big names.

or b) Just let people buy the physical CD for those artists. Which is how things now stand. You still get it into your iTunes library in the end, so I can live with it. If you could buy the CDs direct from Apple (as an Amazon affiliate) that would be cool--but Apple shouldn't start that too soon, or it will slow the momentum of the download store.

I think there are two very different interests here...

First, there are "artists" that want to sell you a whole album because there's one good song on it, and the rest are just for filling. They have no confidence on their music, so they want to make sure people buy the whole album.

Second, there are artists that really work on the whole album as a complete piece. I can think of the albums of Mr. Bungle as an example. Most of the tracks even overlap eachother, so it would be difficult to sell them as songs...

Now... I don't know to which of the two these bands belong :) I think RHCP may belong to the second, though...