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iTMS Named Fortune's Product Of The Year
Demolition writes "To go along with Time Magazine calling the iTunes Music Store the Invention Of The Year, Fortune Magazine has come along and proclaimed iTunes Music Store as the Product Of The Year. As it says in the article, 'With the success of its iTunes Music Store, Apple is almost single-handedly dragging the music industry, kicking and screaming, toward a better future.'" Also, Fortune named the G5 one of the 25 Best Products of the Year for Design.
Lack of success eh?
Looks like mp3.com isn't the only place that does this sort of thing. Maybe you ought to do some research before making blanket accusations
Note the paid to Musicians title
1) ...Why do you, as a consumer, care where Apple gets its profits? Apple is in the business of making money...
Because as a consumer everybody should care about where and how corporations they purchase from make their money. If more people did the world would probably be a much better place.
2) Apple doesn't need to be worrying about getting more money into the hands of the artist -- that's the artist's and the label's fight. Apple barely nets anything on the music sold. Why should it fork over more to the artist
See Above.
Because Apple sells itself as being about more than just the bottom line. Their whole branding is based on this illusion that they are revolutionizing the world, "thinking differently", etc. The reality is far different. They are sugarcoating life for us. They took the same old plantation system from the pre-digital era and created a well designed, easy to use, flashy system for carrying it online with the iTMS. If Apple really wanted to be revolutionary they would have done it differently. Instead it's just co-opting the appearance of revolutionary while neglecting the actual substance.
Use the tech because it's cool.
Using something just because it's cool has got to be one of the worst reasons I have ever heard to use something. Use a tool because it enables you to get the job done, because it's wastes fewer resources, or because it works better than other tools, but not because you'll look cool while doing it (although if it can look cool at the sam time, I'm fine with that).
But don't expect technology companies to move mountains.
And why shouldn't we? Tech companies (and all other companies for that matter) take a lot more than they give from consumers and communities, otherwise they wouldn't be making that sought after "profit" that they then send off to do-nothing shareholders. Why shouldn't we expect a little more from them then just to sell us crap? Unless of course you're one of those "corporations must maximize shareholder value at the expense of all others" types. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with shareholders getting reasonable value in return for the small risk the original purchaser took when he bought the stock (since every subsequent purchase doesn't add anything to the coffers of the company), but this medieval idea that shareholders are the only ones that matter is pretty perverse.
fuck you.