SingHash

Record Companies Starting to Shun iTunes

The labels "chafe" against the idea that I will buy what I want instead of the package they mandate? I hope they get chafed right down to the economic bone. It's called "giving the customers what they want".

Second, if it weren't available on iTunes, I wouldn't get it at all. Think of the huge numbers of "I want it now" consumers, and this trend is only going to increase. The"I'd buy it on CD" percentage of my iTunes purchases is about 2%.

The real problem for the labels is that this 'piecemeal' approach is screwing up their accounting. Instead of buying albums from 10 star performers, I'm buying singles from a hundred.

And finally, the environmental cost of those CDs should be considered. Not that computers are free of environmental sin, but every download I buy is one less bundle of CD, case, plastic, paper, and sales slip. It's a fraction of a reduced trip to the CD shop, complete with burning gasoline, wasted time, and parking fees. And as an earlier poster noted, I'm just going to rip the thing in iTunes anyway.

Chafe away, labels. You deserve it.