Apple took THIRTY MOTHERFUCKING PERCENT of the price of everything. Only an industry as horribly corrupt and detached as the record companies (and other media) of my youth could take a reaming like that, out of the blue, and love it... The music guys hadn't seen clear sky for a very long time. Msblucow's thesis seems to be that even for the person being attacked, it's better to identify with the rapist than with his victim. It's inane.

Apple is a profit-minded corporation. They've stashed about $50 billion in profits, ($60 billion) because they don't have an immediate use for them. Disney, a cousin property, managed to horribly warp American copyright law with fewer resources than that. When time comes for Apple to tighten their grip on the materials they distribute(including, as of this morning, textbooks), they're going to approach our lawmakers with some very powerful persuasion.

Let's not pretend that the mock-turtlenecked ghost of Steve Jobs is going to help us with this one.

Quite the reverse.

When time comes for Apple to tighten their grip on the materials they distrbute

Not organized thoughts:

Apple is a smart player in this, but Crid is right that it's incorrect to think they're "good guys". Pay attention to the patent battles currently being fought, and why undervalued legacy companies (e.g., Motorola) are being purchased solely for their patent portfolios... that's the real place where the IP wars are being fought.

Apple takes a big cut, but handles all of the supply chain issues for the record companies, who only need to submit a digital file to Apple.

I think it's hard to underestimate the value of the iTunes model, which made it much easier to just buy the one track people want. A bunch more people but a single than would buy the album.

including, as of this morning, textbooks

Sold cheaply - $15 for the intro price. Except these textbooks only are good for one pupil for one year. Licenses ≠ books.

Do you know who in your family will inherit your Kindle books when you die?

Apple took 30%? Oh, the poor record companies.
No, wait. Record companies used to charge the artists for the 'physical media' when a song/album sold, as there was an actual exchange of an object (i.e., a CD). When we jump to iTunes etc., they still charged this fee for each sale, even though
(1) There was no exchange of physical media
(2) The single data exchange to Apple is used to provide as many copies as are sold

Apple isn't the only villain here. Don't buy into all the bs from the RIAA and the three big record companies about the money they spend to find and promote talent. Every penny of that gets backcharged to the artists.

And for the record, I do download music. I tend to buy the stuff I like, but I'd like to hear more of the song than the 30 seconds that Amazon or iTunes thinks is the best part.

How can Hollywood and the music industry squawk about thievery when that's been their own business model for decades?

> Record companies used to charge the artists
> for the 'physical media' when a song/album sold

You're missing the forest for the trees, as did the record companies. They assumed handed all this wealth to Apple (nearly in a panic), because they couldn't imagine, and still can't imagine, building distribution models beyond the physical media. And they knew it was coming for FIFTY YEARS.

And we're seeing it over and over. Kodak and on and on...

Crid is right; the record labels gave Apple such a big cut because they regarded iTunes as meaningless fluff that was supposed to be out of business by now. They screwed up, and they have no one but themselves to blame.

People don't realize it, but in a traditional record company contract, the artist pays all costs related to the album, from studio time to manufacturing to promotion. In the bad old days, the artist even had to pay for the recording tape that the studio used (which the label then retained). Every dime came out of the artists' earnings. An artist who earned enough royalties to actually repay the label for all of the (shady-accounting-inflated) costs was said to have "recouped". A recouped artist would be treated like royalty, but only a handful of artists recouped across the entire industry each year. There have been countless million-selling albums that didn't recoup.

And an artist who refused to sign such a contract didn't have many other options. The majors all used a "standardized" contract for new artists; there was no competition. The artist's other choices were limited to indie labels, which would not be able to get their record on Top-40 radio or in Wal-Mart, or to go overseas and try to make a name for themselves in Europe or Japan big enough that they could get more favorable terms with the labels.

The Internet has of course rendered all of the above obsolete. Only foolish artists who themselves haven't gotten smart on the New Order (pun there) still sign traditional contracts with the labels. And yes, it's killing the big record labels. That's what a lot of SOPA/Protect IP and its friends are all about.

> And an artist who refused to sign such a
> contract didn't have many other options.

Right, and a lot of people got cheated. All those teenagers who were pleased to see a banquet of hors d'oeuvres set aside for the press and radio people at the release party for their first album didn't realize they were paying for it, and didn't realize that they were paying seven times market price (because the record company exec and the caterer had come to a little understanding)... And so on with studio costs and every other expense.

And today, wannabe rock stars are hyper-entitled: Cutsey teenage girls warbling through acoustic guitars think they should be able to make a gazillion dollars at it, like Grandma Carly Simon did. The fact that radio marketing isn't nearly so powerful nowadays doesn't tamp their self-righteousness. We've talked about this before: They want all the slick, inexpensive distribution they can get, but they want to charge preposterous prices to make up the difference of a smaller audience... What "the market will bear".

Well the market has a new melody, as we've discussed before.