Why iTunes Sales Are Down: Music Is Bad

Very good article and very good points.

iTunes is not meant to keep Apple alive, the iPod is. I don't really buy music for the same reason, too busy and frankly said, I don't like current music. Current music is boring, unimaginative, lacks real talent and has too much an attitude to get me to buy anything.

The only time I bought anything on iTunes were old songs I could find in record shops. I will buy movies there if I can't find it anywhere else at the same price/quality.

Very good points you could probably have entitle: "Don't Shoot the Messenger! It's the Record Companies that Are Lame!"

Maybe this will enlighten everyone...
http://www.blackfriarsinc.com/blog/2006/12/do-math-itunes-sales-arent-collapsing.html
Doesn't look like disaster to me.

Too true! I am a big music collector (23 1/2 days worth in my iTunes right now), and actually buy all of my music from iTunes now, but since August I have bought only 2 albums - the new ones from Lambchop and Neil Young. Absolutely nothing else appeals right now.

While your comments are sensible (and I agree with them), I think it's worth having a look at the sensible analysis here http://www.blackfriarsinc.com/blog/2006/12/do-math-itunes-sales-arent-collapsing.html before accepting the Forrester Research report as being accurate.

Many iPod users have purchased multiple iPods so you'd have to divide the number iTunes customers by the number of songs sold to get a fairly accurate number of the user's iTunes purchased library.

Also, the research only looks at CC sales, not giftcards that can be purchased online or pretty much any grocery or convenient store. This is the preferred way of shopping on iTunes for many people.

There is some new music coming out that is good enough to buy, for me that isJazz, Blues, R&B and some World. I am not into country and western very much, but some of the new stuff isn't bad. That being said, I agree most of the new music is horrid, like it comes out of a machine instead from artists, same for the movie industry.

As to the iTunes Music Store, I am buying a lot of the short movies as well as music. If you haven't checked out the Shorts give it a try, there is some real creative stuff there.

I strongly agree with your comments. About six years ago I stopped listening to radio all together, turning to the internet for my music and pundit/talkshow needs.

When podcasting came around it was like a perfect fit for a new glove, and I jumped on board. The music "industry" (and with that I mean the big conglomerates - not people like emusic.com or cdbaby.com) are dead, and have been dead for a long time.

The problem, as always is the case with dinosaurs, is that it takes a while for them to realize it.

Finally! It's irritating to read all this "analysis" that iTunes, or digital downloads in general, is failing without actually providing an explanation why. People will buy music when there is good music to buy. The record companies have focused so long on capturing every possible nickel that they've completely lost sight of finding and developing new artitsts. If you want to sell more downloads, produce better music. It's that easy. Same argument for Hollywood -- piracy isn't killing the box office, bad movies kill the box office. Quality = Sales.

iTunes Store sales are not "down".

See http://www.blackfriarsinc.com/blog/2006/12/do-math-itunes-sales-arent-collapsing.html for an erudite and thorough explanation.

You have to love it when the writer refers to the second derivative of the curve.

,dave

You got it half right, yes Apple doesn't need revenue from iTunes directly. But, to say that the music today is bad, is just an ignorant comment. It's sad really, because I've discovered so much new music (mostly by having itunes store accessible on my computer), I truly believe that we live in the best time so far in music history.

Why? Because there is so much diversity, music labels can no longer just push a few artists in volume, they have to play the field because we are getting access to so many great artists through other means. The labels like to call this "Piracy", and there is some of that, but mostly it's the listener being empowered to find music on their own without TV and corporate Radio being the only outlets. We have iTunes, MySpace, and hundreds of other points of contact with great bands today that we'd never hear just 10 years ago. Additionally, with all this access, it's created more competition for your ears, music has gotten "better" because there are more options as artists have diversified. There's a better chance that you'll find a band that speaks to you today than ever before.

I always disagree with anyone who says 'current music is bad' because there is always such a variety of music available, it's a ludicrous suggestion. Seek and ye shall find, and the Internet and services like last.fm makes it easier than ever. Whenever I feel that way, I realise I've lost touch, or expected the same artists to churn out gold all the time.
(And even though I will criticise the majors like the rest of them, it's always been a real struggle for them to break 'real' artists - took Warners years to break REM and the Flaming Lips - I don't own any REM records myself, but they are what most people consider 'real music'. Whereas the public has an endless appetite for stars).

Personally, I don't buy much on iTunes because . . . I can usually get the same album cheaper by buying second hand from Amazon (almost certainly off someone who has ripped their CD then sold it, which is probably a significant piracy problem these days, and one of the small places where I support the RIAA - not on taxing Zunes or blank CDs but on second hand sales. Note : I would not agree if there was no way for people to copy and sell on - so I disagree with the book trade trying the same thing).

The other thing is emusic - now the 2nd biggest site - it's prices are so much lower than Apple or CD sales, it is actually compelling, and I find myself using my monthly bundle a lot more experimentally, plus it actively markets it's back catalog. I download about 90 tracks from emusic for every 1 I buy from iTunes.

I also use the online music store Boomkat quite a lot - who put a lot of effort into their editorial reviews to push 'difficult' music - largely in physical form, but they are a great example of how to run an online music business.

I consider myself to be right in the target market for iTunes - I'm an early adopter of digital technologies, a keen interest in music, and I believe digital downloads are the future - but iTMS is just not compelling enough for me to use as my first choice.

The real culprit, I think, is the prevalence of free peer-to-peer networks, bittorrents, etc. As more and more people gravitate to digital downloads via their Ipods, it's perhaps becoming even more and more apparent just how easy it is to get anything for free from the net, so the reaction is increasingly "why pay?" when they can get non-copyprotected product by clicking their mouse?

re: the idea that if the record companies produce good product, people will buy - I'm not sure that model works anymore, when the truly popular stuff is (again) so readily available on peer-to-peer networks for free....Perhaps offering value-added content of some sort will end up being the wave of the future (something I'm admittedly attempting myself with Artistshare at my own site)...

The reason why songs purchased from iTunes are so low in number to each iPod is very easy, and I don't know why Analysts keep missing this point, but here it is... Most music lovers have a rather large Record/Tape/CD collection already. WE already OWN the music we were most likely to buy. When we got our iPods, we imported our music, so there's little we want to purchase that's new, except for some songs that have come out very recently. I own a 3rd Generation iPod, 30GB, and I have purchased about 110 songs from The iTunes Store. I own over 125 Cassettes and about 150 CDs, not to mention 14 albums. If I can import all this music, why would I buy it again online? Kids will be the major purchasers of online music now and in the future. Why? They are only just beginning to build their music collections. iTunes is convenient to that goal, much more convenient than what I had when I was a kid.

I disagree with the addled assumption that nobody is creating good music anymore. Each aging generation says the new creations are crap. I can hear it now , U-2 was great, The Beatles were great, Elvis was great, Arlo Guthrie was great, Glen Miller was great, Bach was great. But nobody will be great again, As we get older our hearing goes along with our wide eyed ability to enjoy new creations.

The obvious answer to "why are iTMS sales declining" is: Christmas sales. Q1 will probably always be the busiest quarter for Apple's online store, because of all the new iPod owners checking it out.

We just got our largest iTunes payment yet. Our sales are WAY up over last year. Just my 2 cents.

"The problem is the quality of the product. I can't name a single current music act that I care about."

Huh. Funny, but I kinda fail to see how that's iTunes' problem. Since your mind is made up on the subject, I'm not going to pepper you with artist names or anything, but...anyone who thinks there isn't good music being made isn't paying attention.

I would agree with the opinion that most music being produced right now is crap. There are artists out there putting out great music, but one just has to look at all of the carbon copies of Spears, etc and all of the boy bands.
As to Itunes downloads, the majority of the music I have in Itunes (just under 3900 songs) is stuff I already had on CD. But on the flip side a good chunk of those CDs I bought primirily for one song so that ups the total a little bit. Still my shopping cart on Itunes has close to 460 songs, all older music, blues, classic rock etc. very little "new" music.

What Jon and JulesLt said.

My problem with music is that there's *too much* that I want to buy. I have to very consiously limit my music budget.

I can understand the feeling that there's no good music being released today if your only exposure is the manufactured pap being pushed through terrestrial radio/Viacom/Clear Channel.

I'm glad there's someone who has the same idea as me about the current music. Mind that I'm pretty sure that as much good music is made today as 10 or 20 years ago. But it's released on small unknown labels and/or is not given any airplay. Instead, bland, horrible overproduced junk is promoted and pushed up the charts. I couldn't believe how something as loathsome as "Sexy Back" from J. Timberlake reached the first position in the charts. How can they expect us to buy this? A total music illiterate can make better songs in GarageBand.

If you look at the artists that roam the charts, they're either all beautiful women or cool looking 'gangsta' types. The looks seem to be the only selling point. Or if you're filthy rich, you can get in the charts too, like Paris Hilton. The quality of the music is totally irrelevant. What a joke.

Nothing like egg on your face. That Forrester bogus report was debunked. iTS is still exploding.

The drop in music sales mirrors the drop in sales of GM cars. A fellow buys a Chevy Cobat and carpools with four other people. If they pass a one person per car law, sales will go through the roof!

As ususal the U.S. is well behind Europe, (Germany, Denmark, France, in particlular.) They already have a surcharge on blank CDs to compensate artists for piracy. We can do the same and as a bonus eliminate our homelessness problem. The destitude will register as musicians and collect royalties from blank CD sales.

"Remember Apple's priorities here: iTunes exists to sell iPods, not the other way around."

I'd like to believe this. Yet, why is there an iTunes music store section open all of the time in iTunes 7? It certainly slows things down a bit!

akugel: You can disable the "Mini store", as it's called, in the "View" menu.

Well i think that iTunes is no good. I hoped for better quality... if they won´t encode the songs at higher bitrate i won´t download them.. Not worth to pay high money.

What is being called music today, well, it is hard for me to relate to it. Perhaps that happens with every generation change. Sinatra's fans most likely did not follow the Beatles. Anyway, we produce music WE understand, and we are selling a fair amount of it, but mostly at shows.
Shameless plug coming....check out Ben Robinson, www.benrobinson.com www.myspace.com/thebenrobinsonband
Maybe you will relate, maybe not.