iTunes but good

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Cirtur
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iTunes but good

Post by Cirtur »

Imagine if you will iTunes. For every song that gets bought for 99 cents, let's pretend that 1 of those cents goes to the artist/team behind the song. The actual number is much less.

Now imagine being able to pay those people directly, buying your music for a cent a song. I believe that piracy would be significantly curbed and that artists would make more money than they currently do. As well as this, the service doesn't include DRM or anything like that, and allows you to donate money to the artist as well as buy the song.

Your opinion? Would you buy music from this service? Do you see any problems with it? More importantly, is there an existing service like this already set up?

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Re: iTunes but good

Post by Lethal Interjection »

I don't think there is. Not really. Perhaps sites for individual artists, but not overall.
I'd love it though, as I prefer to give my money directly to the band where possible. Which is why I bring money to concerts. Not to give them, or tuck in their g-strings, but to buy their CDs and merch. Direct purchase with the maximum amount of profits, no money getting fed into fat cat capitalists.
Also it is why I've made a few purchases with CD Baby. It is like a standard online CD purchase site, but it gives a much higher percentage to the artists. Granted, it tends to be for small label and independent artists.

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Re: iTunes but good

Post by LordRetard »

My brother recently got signed to a somewhat known record label (well I can't remember if he accepted or not). Apparently, the deal is, the record label pays for all of the recording and promotion, and in exchange they give them some of the stock of albums to do with as they please. So all of the money that they make comes from merch sales at shows. Basically, no money at all goes to them if you buy their songs or their album (unless you pick it up at a show).

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Re: iTunes but good

Post by Apocalyptus »

That sounds good in theory, but the problem is that the money that the record labels take as well as lining the pockets of the bigwigs also goes towards funding and promoting new acts. Stop that process and a lot of awesome new bands that aren't as immediately accessible will never be able to get off the ground.
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Re: iTunes but good

Post by Cirtur »

That's what I was thinking. What would be ideal would be that the service would grow up and start promoting the acts of itself.

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Re: iTunes but good

Post by Snarky00 »

In this age where any schmuck with delusions of grandeur can record themselves on any cheap computer with a decent sound card and a cheap mic and thrust themselves into the spotlight by spamming people on youtube/myspace ect ect accessibility for new artists isn't a concern of mine. I don't buy a lot of music but what I do buy is usually directly from the artists at shows.

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Re: iTunes but good

Post by smiley_cow »

I buy CDs from shows whenever I can, but sometimes, if I really like an artist I'll find the CD online to buy instead of waiting for them to make a detour to Manitoba or Saskatchewan. But most of the artists I listen to either aren't signed, or belong to independent labels, so the artists still end up a fair chunk of all their profits. So I'm not really losing any sleep over it. I never download music though, I prefer actually owning the album, and being able to play it in my car without going through the effort of burning a CD.
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Re: iTunes but good

Post by Kimra »

On that note everyone should listen to this band, which is awesome... and I might know them... or be related to one of them. I wish you could buy their stuff, but instead you can probably just download it for free (I haven't looked into this as I get copies without asking).

/end shameless promotion/
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Re: iTunes but good

Post by smiley_cow »

Kimra wrote:On that note everyone should listen to this band, which is awesome... and I might know them... or be related to one of them. I wish you could buy their stuff, but instead you can probably just download it for free (I haven't looked into this as I get copies without asking).

/end shameless promotion/
Listening to them now, they're pretty good.
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Re: iTunes but good

Post by LordRetard »

Apocalyptus wrote:That sounds good in theory, but the problem is that the money that the record labels take as well as lining the pockets of the bigwigs also goes towards funding and promoting new acts. Stop that process and a lot of awesome new bands that aren't as immediately accessible will never be able to get off the ground.
Well, yes, the choice of the label to pick up another album depends a lot on how sales are. My point is that actual record sales by the label do not normally go toward the artists. They could sell as many albums as they could through the label and never end up making a cent if no one goes to the shows, even though they could keep putting out new albums.

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Re: iTunes but good

Post by Kimra »

smiley_cow wrote:Listening to them now, they're pretty good.
Your my new favourite forum member. I didn't have a favourite before, but it's you now. :)
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Re: iTunes but good

Post by Frostbite »

Kimra wrote:
smiley_cow wrote:Listening to them now, they're pretty good.
Your my new favorite forum member. I didn't have a favorite before, but it's you now. :)
AMERICAN'D
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Re: iTunes but good

Post by smiley_cow »

Kimra wrote:
smiley_cow wrote:Listening to them now, they're pretty good.
Your my new favourite forum member. I didn't have a favourite before, but it's you now. :)
:D
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Re: iTunes but good

Post by LordRetard »

Frostbite wrote:[colour=#FF0000]AME[/colour]RIC[colour=#0000BF]AN'D[/colour]
CANADIAN'D

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Re: iTunes but good

Post by Frostbite »

I think I was CANADIAN'D enough already, with the large Canadian flag hanging over my TV.
Doin' podcasts before they were cool.

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