Japanese Musicians Defy Sony by Joining iTunes

Homework Help writes "Japanese musicians under contract by Sony are defying their contracts by using Apple's iTunes service to deliver songs. Rock Musician Hotoharu Sano points out: 'It is an individual's freedom where that person chooses to listen to music. I want to deliver my music wherever my listeners are.' Sony Music Entertainment and Apple are still locked in talks and no agreement has been reached so far. Apple's offering of its iTunes service at lower cost in Japan is greatly attributed to their success." From the article: " Before iTunes' arrival, Japan's top music download service, which is backed by Sony and includes Sony recording artists, averaged about 450,000 downloads a month. By offering its service for lower prices, Apple is undercutting such online music services. Japanese are accustomed to paying twice as much as Apple is charging in Japan, which are still higher than the 99 cents charged in the U.S."

Comments

Contract

[kevin_conaway]

Are the artists that are doing this in violation of their contract with Sony?

Re:Artist's Rights

[jiushao]

On the other hand, if the artist has already signed away their so-called "rights" to a record company, I would say that they only have themselves to blame.

The money

[bogaboga]

Now, I know and confirm that it's always about the money. Even when a company like Sony or any other says that they are helping consumers, behind it is the profit motive. Folks, the inconsiderate desire for money is the root of all evil.

For Sony, life must be worth living, for even when costs sky-rocket and profits dwindle as its traditional money sector is invaded, they still hang on.

Question is: For how long?

Absurdity

[imstanny]

It annoys me that people whimsically violate contractual terms which they have prior agreed to.

If I sign a contract that says I will work for Sony for free, then I lose the ability to claim that my compensation is unnacceptable, that I'm being enslaved, etc. Which is what these artists and that guy that left microsoft to work at google are doing.

Re:In Search of the Lost Accord

[Doc Ruby]

Bending over backwards is a judo move. Apple now has wrested the customer relationship out of the labels' hands. They can do quite a lot outside their contractual constraints. And those contracts expire along the lifecycle curve that the labels' catalogs diminish in value. Eventually, Apple will be able to buy the catalogs from the labels, as the labels' oxygen, that they've been sucking from the necks of consumers, eventualy is completely exhausted.

Good work...

[AusG4]

This was out on MacNN and Digg yesterday.
Ahh /. - news for nerds from yesterday.