Well, it’s always been on the cards, but the biggest news of the week is that Apple have finally been able to make iTunes tracks available without the Digital Rights Management that was essentially ‘watermarked’ into all previous tracks.

So you can now buy a tune from iTunes and play it on Microsoft’s Zune player or similar by SanDisk. It really took us until 2009 to get to that stage? The major labels and countless independents have been selling DRM-free tracks via Amazon for about a year, so why did they hold out on Apple?

Steve Jobs announced that EMI were willing to drop DRM back in 2007, but the rest of the majors (Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony Music Entertainment) have held out for some unknown reason. Actually, the reason is know; it’s because majors have no idea how to move forward in this music evolution. They were unwilling to hand over DRM-free copies to iTunes because of the scale of it’s sales, fearing a loss of control and rampant, escalating piracy. They struggle to keep hold of things like DRM so that people don’t ‘steal their money’.

Here’s a thought. Will Apple’s news make much difference? The people who already buy millions of tracks from iTunes are doing so (mostly) happily and playing them on their millions of iPods and iPhones. As far as they know (or care), DRM has never been an issue. People who have wanted to download DRM-free music for their non-Apple devices have been able to find it fairly easily. Will these settled buyers bother to jump ship? Especially with the new price rises too (more on that later). The infamous Bob Lefsetz thinks the news is very much a non-issue, saying that “the only people who care about DRM don’t pay for music, they just steal it. Otherwise, Amazon would have eclipsed Apple and the Seattle company would own the online music market”.

Is it all too-little, too-late?

Lee Jarvis.

Cross-posted at our Music Jobs website in the USA

I’ve covered a bit recently on AC/DC dropping iTunes because of Apple’s requirement to sell album tracks individually and the band’s belief that this is wrong. Well, assuming that you aren’t a rock supergroup that can strike up a great physical distribution deal, iTunes could be on your list of download sites, and using it to sell your records, possibly through a digital distributor, could be a great way to boost your digital sales. A site that has sold over 5 billion songs cannot be ignored.

For a start, no-one makes as much noise in the technology scene as Apple. Their keynotes and conferences attract huge interest and will be live-blogged a hundred times over. Even when they announce some relatively small changes to the iPods and iTunes, people are engrossed. A large number of people WORSHIP iTunes, and the brand is recognisable to millions of computer users worldwide. Additional plus sides of this instant recognition, are ease of use and trust. Unless you make it as easy as possible for people to download your music within seconds, their attention wavers, it’s the way of the Digi-world. An online store that I’ve not heard of, where I have to set up a new account, find a confirmation email and add payment details is going to be a drag to some people, whilst asking me to purchase a track from Bob-a-Job’s download store makes me think twice about my credit details being safe. It may not be the right way to think, but we are talking about the masses here.

Marketing your sounds alongside similar sounds will help to increase sales from browsing music buyers. For instance, if you make smooth, soulful grooves, then a page on your website listing your favourite artists such as D’Angelo, Erykah Badu, Maxwell and Raphael Saadiq will help fans of those stumble across your sounds. Applying this theory to iTunes, the new Genius Sidebar will list you alongside similar artists. If you are considered by to be of the same ilk when users submit their library and playlist information, then it will suggest your music to fans of these artists. It (mostly) works too. This can be a great promotion tool, and potentially reaches a huge number of fans of your style.

Where AC/DC differed, is that they have a hardcore fan base that they’ve established over 30 years of world tours. They are ‘old-school’ in that sense, so an old school physical deal and mass advertising worked for them. Most artists will not be able to follow the AC/DC route, and it would not be in your wisest interests to. To re-emphasise the point of my last post, the important thing is to be aware of these strategies and why they work. The iTunes path may or may not be the best one for your style / core group of fans / marketing abilities, again, I’m just throwing it out there for you to chew over. Selling your own CDs is another route that i will cover very soon. Being aware that all different ideas could succeed, means that you will recognise a good opportunity when you work your way into it.

Lee Jarvis

From Guns n Roses to AC/DC! Yes, we really are keeping up with the times! It’s funny how these, ahem, ‘mature’ bands are leading the way with their music strategies.

Anywho, I thought I’d report on the Young Brothers and co, because they recently took a stand against iTunes. They believed that an album should not be able to be broken down and purchased as individual tracks. Something that Apple is very sure should be able to happen, and something that I am sitting on the fence about. If you are going to make a ‘proper’ album (and I wouldn’t do it any other way), then the songs really should come as a package. There’s the mixture of styles, tempos and the interludes and the way it all moulds together to make an album something a bit more special than a compilation. There’s also the fact that many albums I have bought and immediately assumed ‘I don’t like track 3’, only for it to evolve with me and a couple of years later I realise that my favourites are the unknown and once disliked tracks. If, however, you are a current major label pop starlet and you are going to throw together 2 hits and a bunch of fillers in order to get something out in time for Christmas and your album would normally become the staple of car-boot sales around the country, then I can see the appeal of shortening the pain and just purchasing the two tracks. Although, to be honest, you could shorten the pain for all involved by not recording a bunch of rubbish in the first place (that rant is going to continue in a new blog post, I can tell you…).

So, AC/DC’s ‘Black Ice’ album would not be available on iTunes for the above reason. The result? Over 780,000 sales in it’s first week in the US. That’s also thanks to an exclusivity deal with Wal-Mart and strong promotion on their part. I the UK, they outsold Kaiser Chiefs two to one, and I believe that sales hit around the 120,000 mark. Ultimately, they hit the number one spot in an incredible 29 different countries!

Am I saying that we should all now ditch the digital revolution and just sell physical albums? Of course not. AC/DC is in a unique position and can strike up such a deal because of their strong history. Ultimately, the physical only strategy was to their greatest benefit. And I AM saying that you should explore all options to find the greatest benefit to you. Maybe that is physical releases, maybe that is an exclusive digital deal with Stompy, maybe you should give your music away. You decide, I’m just here to open you eyes

Lee Jarvis.