30 years playing in and recording with independent bands. Dong just fine on understanding up front investments.
Apologies, then. Though I am curious about your take on this... specifically why it differs from my other friends. All of my independent musician friends I know online and off think this is a raw deal as soon as they learn the details. I understand why it makes sense for the big labels (they don't care about artists' incomes and likely got a sweet payoff from Apple). But I'm curious why a smaller musician/music producer would be happy with it.
Enter MP3 and suddenly musicians are looking at a hostile world where their primary consuming demographic believes it is silly to pay for music at all. Bands have traditionally felt screwed by labels, now their customers are screwing them. Apple sets up a service where the labels contribution to the free trial period results in no revenue for bands and that's the distributor screwing them. That makes it pretty much the entire industry top to bottom.
I don't see it that way. Apple Music will likely tap a huge population that doesn't currently have a streaming service which is a great thing.
As far as "losing" micropayments from song plays during the trial… If someone is forced to listen to my song by their robot DJ and doesn't care enough to come see a concert or buy something, or listen to it in the future… that wasn't really a sale I missed out on. That was some poor schmuck that wasted 4 minutes of his listening time on my song and in some alternate economic system would have paid me for the privilege, but didn't.
Also: I'm eating in August no matter how this plays out.
Wrong. Apple has unequivocally stated that this isn't happening.
> iOS users can't download music from the web
Wrong. You can just add it using iTunes.
A couple different independent artists online have stated that Apple told them this.
> Wrong. You can just add it using iTunes.
Did you purposely take my quote out of context to make your answer seem correct? I specifically said that iOS users can't download a song from the web or a 3rd party app and add it to their music library like they can on Android. On Android, I can download a song while out on the go from anywhere I want and add it to my music library. Every app can add music, every app can play music. Can you do that on iOS... or do you have to go back to your home computer, add the song to your computer, add it to your iTunes library and then sync it to your iPhone/iPad? The last time I helped a friend do this, this is what we had to do.
Well I am far more likely to take the measured, legally considered statement from Apple over a single independent artist's Twitter posts. Apple would be in a for a world of hurt if they deliberately mislead people.
> Did you purposely take my quote out of context
No. I am an iOS user and half my music collection is from the web. It is completely legitimate to use iTunes to add it to your collection. Otherwise third party apps exist which allow you to download from the mobile web. I am not saying it isn't as flexible as Android but it is disingenuous to say it isn't possible.
Considering the way Apple lied... ehem... misspoke? misled people?... about ebooks, lying about music isn't that far fetched.
> No. I am an iOS user and half my music collection is from the web. It is completely legitimate to use iTunes to add it to your collection. Otherwise third party apps exist which allow you to download from the mobile web. I am not saying it isn't as flexible as Android but it is disingenuous to say it isn't possible.
So, as I said, it is impossible for an iOS user to just download a song and add it to their music library on the go. It would be technically easy for Apple to enable this, but they purposely disallow this to make it harder for customers to purchase from 3rd parties. The same way they won't let 3rd parties sell music within their apps without paying 30% to Apple (making it financially impossible).
Having to go all the way home, add your music to iTunes, plug your phone into your computer, and then sync to iTunes just to be able to add a single MP3 to your phone's music library may be "legitimate" but it's anything but reasonable. It's in this state solely to make it inconvenient to the user and push them into the open arms of iTunes.
A band will put in a long time creating an album: writing the songs, orchestrating, rehearsing, reworking, etc. Then they pay real money for recording, editing and mastering as well as paying an artist and photographer to create the album art. They're also creating marketing materials online and off. This is all for a usually small time period when a new album will sell. And when streaming (which generally makes them next to nothing) will hit its peak. All these costs are front loaded and then there's a usually short time period where the band hopes to make this money back. During this time, the band is spending additional money and time doing marketing and promotion as well.
Apple's deal is a raw one for these artists as they'll lose a good chunk of revenue during that small time period. And it will leech purchases away from iTunes as well. I can guarantee that Apple will have prominent notices within iTunes about which albums are available on Apple Music and suggest that would-be purchasers sign up.
Plus there's the fact that Apple is threatening independent artists with removal from iTunes if they don't agree to stream for free on Apple Music. And the fact that these artists can't just decide to sell the music themselves on their website to iOS users because, thanks to Apple's carefully-designed walled garden, iOS users can't download music from the web or 3rd party apps and add it to their music library like they can on Android.