So basically what you're saying is, if you exclude one group of americans (the afro-americans) all is well.
mmm
As for the statistics: supposing they are totally accurate and not paid for, being lazy, I'm not going to look for other stats, you do that if you like.
But here's a few facts you might want to squeeze into your numbers dance: - how many schools in Europe you think have been visited by kids with an arsenal, shooting teachers and students alike? - how many schools in Europe have metal detectors at the gates? - how many work-places you think are visited by work-mates turned Rambo?
I leave you to ponder that, one hint though, you don't need more than one hand to count all three factoids.
I wanted to add snipers to the list, but that was an act of a theocratic Islamo-fascist, not a true and blue American, right? Although I wonder where he got that fine American gun.
BTW most of these rather public acts in your wonderfully free country have been done by whites. Most gun-shop owners are white as well... And right after the event you'd find one of your rifle association actor buddies to wow the crowds with those stats, and those beautiful slogans: guns don't kill people, out of my dead hands..."
Must be wonderful, having a gun. I've handled a lot of guns and fail to see the "beauty" of them.
And for that nice quote at the end of your posting:
"I know it's hard to admit that you are lacking a very important liberty, but really, letting them take your guns was a mistake... and now it's too late"
Know a lot of Europeans, do you? They look oppressed to you? On the one hand we're all bathing in sweetness and light and on the other, we're under the yoke of our governments that have taken our weapons away from us... That quote would be insulting if it wasn't so funny.
FYI in every European country you can own a gun if you're so inclined, but not just like that. And you can't just carry it around either. Oppression, I guess. As for military grade weapons or "upgrade kits", forget it.
oppressedly yours,
Disclaimer: excuse the sarcasm, I'm not trying to make fun of the many victims of violence here.
As I said, we won't make any dents in each others convictions, and as long as you don't export your liberal weapons laws, you can do what you want. And if you think you're fit to carry, well, time will tell. I certainly won't argue with you (never argue with an armed man;-)
And no surprise: I still disagree:-)
Just a quicky: cars are made for transportation. Use them right, nobody gets killed. Guns are made to kill people, use them right, somebody gets killed. Oversimplification, but you get my point. It's not a good comparison, and if you make it, you totally miss the point.
There's enough statistics going around btw, google, google and gasp.
Now, here's the point, in two simple steps: of all the people that get killed yearly by gunshots (and a shocking amount of them minors) most could be avoided and have little to do with normal crime but are a direct exponent of the liberal gun laws you have. The fact that guns are so available in abundance is horrifying in itself. You don't think that's a bad thing?
OK, how's this for perspective: how many people do you know who'll NEVER drink and drive? Extrapolate to guns: you trust yourself. Trust your neighbours? their neighbours? The whole street?
They all keep the ammo separate from the gun, the gun under lock and key, and the kids don't know where to find it, right? Right.
Finally, second part of the point: I don't give a hoot how many people ALSO get killed by trains, planes and automobiles. Why mention them? Are they lucky because they didn't get shot?
Compare gun deaths in the US to eg gun deaths in Canada, Australia, the EG, all with a varying degree of freedom and accountability, but none of them as personal-protection-gun-crazy as the US. If you like you can check their transportation mortality, or the flue mortality as well, but I'd rather stick to the point...
And btw, although I love NY and Boston (can't really speak of the rest, never been), I feel infinitively more safe in all those other places - including a good part of South America (barring some countries sprawling with guns, including the one I'm residing in right now) - than in the US. As one of your country-men put it: "It pays to be polite, you never know if a guy's carrying".
Hi, I like your reply, it's refreshening not to read "Die, die you commy french sissy" (which is quite a compliment for a Dutchment;-).
Anyhow, as you state, the "cultural" gap may be too big for either of us to put a dent in our conviction. I won't dream btw of trying to say you're not fit to carry a gun. I don't know you and don't know your profession. And btw I have nothing against guns for a lot of things, and you're mistaken that European farmers only just have been allowed to carry guns. I am however totally against the liberal weapons policy in the US. As long as you don't export that "freedom" however, you can do what you like afaic, but my heart bleeds for you.
Historically you may have earned the right to carry a gun, but if you feel this has made the US a safer place to live and have children, you might find it interesting to learn that in the US more children are killed by gunfire than in any other western country. In fact, the amount of people killed by gunfire (%) compares favorably to a country in war. Google the UN sites for statistics. I know they're not "en vogue" right now in the US, but still...
I'm pretty happy I've been to a few weapons collections and destructions. I've held guns in my hand, I've even helped classify them. I've seen and talked to quite a few policemen, Interpol dudes, army people, even a wonderful guy from the Royal Canadian Mountain Police. A surprisingly large number of these people are against guns in general.
The stupid fact is that guns do kill people. They know it, I know it, you know it as well. I know, people kill people as well, which is an excellent reason not to give them guns, but hey. Each to his own.
Right now I'm sick and tired to see guns everywhere, I can't walk into a shop - whether it sells wheetkiller or toys) without passing guards with shotguns. All for my security. I feel so safe - not!
I'll be very happy when we move back to Europe, where I can leave protection to the police. It's a bitch, I'm sure in some situations I'd love (desparately) to have a gun, but that's the trade-off for a largely safer environment.
Man, they're really threatening your freedom here. Every man should have the right to have enough weapons to blow away their family, friends, co-workers and total strangers - including the kid's schoolmates.
Why not forward all the spam you get to the nearest politician that represents you, with the simple message: "Could you please do something about this?"
Of course, this politician could try and stop you, but imagine the media attention this would get...
BTW after some rigorous pruning of unnecessary accounts and scrambling my email addresses on the internet, I'm down to 2 spams a week (which get caught by mail.app's excellent spam-filter).
What's all this fear of being modded troll? Is this karma shit for real? Will you be haunted in your after-life or will piano's start hitting the pavement when you go for a walk?
btw, so far I've plugged in four different multi-button mouses without the need of downloading anything. I'm currently using a wireless Logitech. I've lost two buttons, but the 5-button MS mouse was the only one that continues to work om my wife's Toshiba, so I did the gallant thing. (just felt like sharing this... will greatly enhance my karma, I'm sure)
The average American will always think they're more successful (and better and bigger - granted, when measuring waistlines, they could be right). Oh, but maybe that's not right, see, the average american is struggling to make a living...
I LOVE healthcare, good education and work regulation. I don't like taxes, but I'm not completely stupid...
I don't get the American's obsession with taxes. Who the fuck is supposed to pay for education if not you and your neighbours? health care? security, infrastructure, whatnot?
The single most shocking realisation I had when talking with a lot of americans is that they don't feel they should pay for things they take for granted. No tax. That's the ideal. And fuck everybody but me and mine.
First time I was in the states (Boston) I saw a huge bridge that was largely donated by a person.
If a country on the one hand has more poor, illiterates and under-age prisoners than the rest of the western world and on the other hand has a class of people so rich they can donate bridges, imo it's a sick place.
You can have your success, if you're too damned anti-social to pay taxes in order to level the playing ground for future generations, you deserve the stress and penalties that come with "not being successful".
You go ahead and be successful, and let us poor Europeans enjoy our families and lives.
(btw: I'm not targeting all americans, and I'm sure there are some europeans who'd take offense to this post)
You seem to suggest XP and OS X are equally vulnerable (or secure) but since XP is the OS du jour, there's viruses and worms for XP and since OS X is obscure, there are none (0) for OS X.
eheheheheheh I'm actually not going to argue with that. It has been done before by quite knowledgeable people. Just following your logic here, which is more fun.
OK, and with this huge crowd of mac-haters out there, there's none with just a smidgen of intelligence to write an OS X virus.
Which should be just as easy to do as writing an XP virus.
It has now been three months since the fact is widely spread on the internet: to date ZERO virusses for OS X.
And since only 8 milion people use OS X, that's going to stay that way, I mean, 8 milion. Ffffff, nothing!
Regardless of everybody now at least knowing of the mac (what with iTunes and iPod).
Regardless of all the media attention it would get - probably a LOT more than "Hey, here's another Windows virus".
Finally, while not using any real arguments, allow me to say your arguments are baseless. The 'security through obscurity' myth has been debunked with many a good argument and more flair than I have in me.
How can you own an iBook, be into OS X and yet know so little about it's best features: security and stability...
But thank you for this moment of fun.
BTW: errr yes, there are virusses you can get on your mac. Some obsolete macro viruses for word that somehow still infect word for OS X. But Let's just assume for the sake of (my) argument that by virus we mean something that wreaks havoc on your computer.
First time I saw this feature (yes, on Windows) I was frankly blown away, even if it was such a little thing. It was obvious, easy and it wasn't on the Mac.
It was nice to make an app that mimicked this behaviour for the mac, but if one company can share concepts, then why not Apple?
And credits? The fact that Apple hired the actual programmer of the feature isn't credit enough?
If this open letter is a marketing stunt, I'd do a slight rewrite, a bit more upbeat, a bit less beaten up. Would still get the same attention, but people would think better about the company.
Yeah, I remember. Windows is for Intelligent People.
Everybody know, Intelligent People don't have viruses and never have driver problems. They can plug in anything they like and it always works - Even After The Next Security Update.
So yes, the guy must be an idiot. I bet he expected his computer to just work. Hahahaha! What an idiot.
Ahem, I stole this from Calvin and Hobbes. It's phonetic for Knowledge. You can find beginner courses everywhere for free on the net.
Supposing you don't know a lot about HTML and want to do this iTunes trick, the easiest way would be to "borrow" a HTML suit from someone (Adobe Golive, Macromedia Dreamweaver) and do some experimenting.
Try to learn some basics, since you'll have to access the code (which is easy).
Make a page that does it for you (and don't be afraid to rip of the design from another shop, since they've already thought a lot about information and incentives people need in order to talk to their wallets)...
Then do the copy-paste thing from Apple's website.
You search a number and they generate the code to paste in your html page.
I ripped of a screenshot from the iTunes Store to show my friends that you can use text, pictures etc...
It's a no-brainer, you need only a bit of html nollidj
I have heard the following: 80c for the label, 19 split equally between apple and the artist.
That means that apart from the deal between label and artist, Apple pays 9,5c directly to the artist.
The rest - how much of a part of 80c is for the artist and for the label - really depends on the deal labels and artists have.
That's important to note. Labels and artists have their own contracts regardless of Apple.
FYI there's loads and loads of labels out there. Label is not the same as RIAA. And labels do actually do a lot of work. And there are a lot of labels out there that are partly or wholly artist-controlled.
When all's said and done, producing music is expensive and complicated. Talent is not enough to get from an idea to a finished song/work on a carrier (like a CD or mp3 or whatever).
A lot of that work gets done by labels. A lot of that also depends on the artist. You can decide to pay for your own studio time, production, do your own distribution or get your own deal, choose your tour manager, work together with other artist initiatives. There really are a lot of ways to do this. It's still complicated, and record labels are still a big part of the process. But there's choice, and it gets bigger.
What Apple offers is a fair distribution model and incredibly nice and democratic shelf-space rules. That's a lot more spectacular than people think, believe me. Actually, it's unheard of.
Now, it's still up to the artist to get himself a good deal, that hasn't changed. But there's something very radical happening here, it will change things for the RIAA, not that they'll evaporate into nothingness overnight, but they'll have to find good incentives to get artists to sign up with them...
Apple pays just under 10% directly to the artist. Monthly.
The rest of the money (from the about 80% label cut) comes from the label and depends on the deal they have between them.
I fail to see your point, totally. Especially since a few searches will lead you to artist's comments, independent label comments and music journalist comments. All very favorable to the democratic one size fits all distribution deal Apple provides here.
That would be a cool feature in the iTunes shop: search for indies...
What's cool about iTunes is they throw their distribution model open, everybody can go in and get the same deal and store space. If musicians still want to be part of RIAA in the near future, they're only screwing themselves...
In itself, this one million is meaningless, but as an overall strategy to sell iPods and promote the Mac it's unbeatable. And they have revenues daily, no costs, unbelievable.
I am now in the process of applying for membership.
You are very right, this formula is not supporting the artist PER SE.
But give labels and artists some credit, and above all, give Apple some credit.
First off: this is by far the easiest distribution deal you can get as a smaller label. And by easy I mean clear, no nonsense and not labor or cost intensive.
Second: since Apple doesn't demand exclusivity, this is a good add-on, regardless of other distribution or obligations.
Third: not every label is out to screw the artist. The 80 dollarcent is for the label. OK, but do you know the deal labels have with their artists? It only means Apple gives this percentage to the artists, this percentage to the labels and let them fight amongst themselves. As a distributor that's only fair. To do it any other way means not doing it at all, or do you think every artist is waiting to do its own production, book-keeping, legal work, etc etc?
Fourth: this is a great opportunity for labels and artists who are aware of what they do to make more profit per sale instead of less. By cutting some of the costs, by being able to make a cheap-ass non-programming, hardly any coding music store on their own websites without all the hassle. The iTunes link creator seriously kicks ASS!!!!
Check out the stupid example I put online for my friends in Belgium: http://www.verspeelt.com/itunes/
Fifth: Apple is making a serious appeal to indies. Indies are mostly musicians or ex-musicians themselves. Maybe not every one of them is nice, bright and clean, but these are not the big Enemy of the Artist, and sometimes better equipped to give iTMS the data they need.
Sixth: OK, CD production is not the only big cost artists (or their labels) have to cope with, but it's one of the biggest. With this distribution model, you'll still need CD production for quite a few years to come, but regardless, you need to produce your music. studio's are expensive, good sound technicians are expensive and artists - or at least professionals - in their own right artwork is expensive And being able to win part of that back with a distribution model that costs you nothing and keeps you out of the big five's grasp but with the same shop exposure is incredibly EMPOWERING.
Seventh: In a perfect world, music is free. Chicks and guys fall out of the sky every time you get horny, world-peace and happiness for all. In this world, you don't just throw away an initiative that gives a bit back to the artist and indies and makes fans happy.
I'm seriously hoping this whole iTunes thing gets big.
You wouldn't be able to do what you say at the cost you state. Not with all the built in redundancy.
Well, if you'd do this just for yourself, who cares. Then I can see the temptation to just go out and build the bastard. But I can't see institutions go for the "I come with the machine" deal;-)
Slashdot Mirror
So basically what you're saying is, if you exclude one group of americans (the afro-americans) all is well.
..."
mmm
As for the statistics: supposing they are totally accurate and not paid for, being lazy, I'm not going to look for other stats, you do that if you like.
But here's a few facts you might want to squeeze into your numbers dance:
- how many schools in Europe you think have been visited by kids with an arsenal, shooting teachers and students alike?
- how many schools in Europe have metal detectors at the gates?
- how many work-places you think are visited by work-mates turned Rambo?
I leave you to ponder that, one hint though, you don't need more than one hand to count all three factoids.
I wanted to add snipers to the list, but that was an act of a theocratic Islamo-fascist, not a true and blue American, right? Although I wonder where he got that fine American gun.
BTW most of these rather public acts in your wonderfully free country have been done by whites. Most gun-shop owners are white as well...
And right after the event you'd find one of your rifle association actor buddies to wow the crowds with those stats, and those beautiful slogans: guns don't kill people, out of my dead hands
Must be wonderful, having a gun. I've handled a lot of guns and fail to see the "beauty" of them.
And for that nice quote at the end of your posting:
"I know it's hard to admit that you are lacking a very important liberty, but really, letting them take your guns was a mistake... and now it's too late"
Know a lot of Europeans, do you? They look oppressed to you? On the one hand we're all bathing in sweetness and light and on the other, we're under the yoke of our governments that have taken our weapons away from us... That quote would be insulting if it wasn't so funny.
FYI in every European country you can own a gun if you're so inclined, but not just like that. And you can't just carry it around either. Oppression, I guess. As for military grade weapons or "upgrade kits", forget it.
oppressedly yours,
Disclaimer: excuse the sarcasm, I'm not trying to make fun of the many victims of violence here.
As I said, we won't make any dents in each others convictions, and as long as you don't export your liberal weapons laws, you can do what you want. And if you think you're fit to carry, well, time will tell. I certainly won't argue with you (never argue with an armed man ;-)
:-)
And no surprise: I still disagree
Just a quicky: cars are made for transportation. Use them right, nobody gets killed. Guns are made to kill people, use them right, somebody gets killed. Oversimplification, but you get my point. It's not a good comparison, and if you make it, you totally miss the point.
There's enough statistics going around btw, google, google and gasp.
Now, here's the point, in two simple steps: of all the people that get killed yearly by gunshots (and a shocking amount of them minors) most could be avoided and have little to do with normal crime but are a direct exponent of the liberal gun laws you have. The fact that guns are so available in abundance is horrifying in itself. You don't think that's a bad thing?
OK, how's this for perspective: how many people do you know who'll NEVER drink and drive? Extrapolate to guns: you trust yourself. Trust your neighbours? their neighbours? The whole street?
They all keep the ammo separate from the gun, the gun under lock and key, and the kids don't know where to find it, right? Right.
Finally, second part of the point: I don't give a hoot how many people ALSO get killed by trains, planes and automobiles. Why mention them? Are they lucky because they didn't get shot?
Compare gun deaths in the US to eg gun deaths in Canada, Australia, the EG, all with a varying degree of freedom and accountability, but none of them as personal-protection-gun-crazy as the US. If you like you can check their transportation mortality, or the flue mortality as well, but I'd rather stick to the point...
And btw, although I love NY and Boston (can't really speak of the rest, never been), I feel infinitively more safe in all those other places - including a good part of South America (barring some countries sprawling with guns, including the one I'm residing in right now) - than in the US. As one of your country-men put it: "It pays to be polite, you never know if a guy's carrying".
Cheers,
Hi, I like your reply, it's refreshening not to read "Die, die you commy french sissy" (which is quite a compliment for a Dutchment ;-).
...
Anyhow, as you state, the "cultural" gap may be too big for either of us to put a dent in our conviction. I won't dream btw of trying to say you're not fit to carry a gun. I don't know you and don't know your profession. And btw I have nothing against guns for a lot of things, and you're mistaken that European farmers only just have been allowed to carry guns. I am however totally against the liberal weapons policy in the US. As long as you don't export that "freedom" however, you can do what you like afaic, but my heart bleeds for you.
Historically you may have earned the right to carry a gun, but if you feel this has made the US a safer place to live and have children, you might find it interesting to learn that in the US more children are killed by gunfire than in any other western country. In fact, the amount of people killed by gunfire (%) compares favorably to a country in war. Google the UN sites for statistics. I know they're not "en vogue" right now in the US, but still
I'm pretty happy I've been to a few weapons collections and destructions. I've held guns in my hand, I've even helped classify them. I've seen and talked to quite a few policemen, Interpol dudes, army people, even a wonderful guy from the Royal Canadian Mountain Police. A surprisingly large number of these people are against guns in general.
The stupid fact is that guns do kill people. They know it, I know it, you know it as well. I know, people kill people as well, which is an excellent reason not to give them guns, but hey. Each to his own.
Right now I'm sick and tired to see guns everywhere, I can't walk into a shop - whether it sells wheetkiller or toys) without passing guards with shotguns. All for my security. I feel so safe - not!
I'll be very happy when we move back to Europe, where I can leave protection to the police. It's a bitch, I'm sure in some situations I'd love (desparately) to have a gun, but that's the trade-off for a largely safer environment.
Are they really blocking pro-gun sites?
Man, they're really threatening your freedom here.
Every man should have the right to have enough weapons to blow away their family, friends, co-workers and total strangers - including the kid's schoolmates.
Why not forward all the spam you get to the nearest politician that represents you, with the simple message:
"Could you please do something about this?"
Of course, this politician could try and stop you, but imagine the media attention this would get...
BTW after some rigorous pruning of unnecessary accounts and scrambling my email addresses on the internet, I'm down to 2 spams a week (which get caught by mail.app's excellent spam-filter).
Yeah right.
Shoot first, ask questions later. If it's all the same to you, why not wait a few days?
What's all this fear of being modded troll?
Is this karma shit for real? Will you be haunted in your after-life or will piano's start hitting the pavement when you go for a walk?
btw, so far I've plugged in four different multi-button mouses without the need of downloading anything.
I'm currently using a wireless Logitech. I've lost two buttons, but the 5-button MS mouse was the only one that continues to work om my wife's Toshiba, so I did the gallant thing.
(just felt like sharing this... will greatly enhance my karma, I'm sure)
If you're still suffering the 10.1 release, I recommend you go straight to 10.3 and stop whining.
The average American will always think they're more successful (and better and bigger - granted, when measuring waistlines, they could be right). Oh, but maybe that's not right, see, the average american is struggling to make a living...
I LOVE healthcare, good education and work regulation. I don't like taxes, but I'm not completely stupid...
I don't get the American's obsession with taxes. Who the fuck is supposed to pay for education if not you and your neighbours? health care? security, infrastructure, whatnot?
The single most shocking realisation I had when talking with a lot of americans is that they don't feel they should pay for things they take for granted. No tax. That's the ideal. And fuck everybody but me and mine.
First time I was in the states (Boston) I saw a huge bridge that was largely donated by a person.
If a country on the one hand has more poor, illiterates and under-age prisoners than the rest of the western world and on the other hand has a class of people so rich they can donate bridges, imo it's a sick place.
You can have your success, if you're too damned anti-social to pay taxes in order to level the playing ground for future generations, you deserve the stress and penalties that come with "not being successful".
You go ahead and be successful, and let us poor Europeans enjoy our families and lives.
(btw: I'm not targeting all americans, and I'm sure there are some europeans who'd take offense to this post)
You seem to suggest XP and OS X are equally vulnerable (or secure) but since XP is the OS du jour, there's viruses and worms for XP and since OS X is obscure, there are none (0) for OS X.
eheheheheheh
I'm actually not going to argue with that. It has been done before by quite knowledgeable people. Just following your logic here, which is more fun.
OK, and with this huge crowd of mac-haters out there, there's none with just a smidgen of intelligence to write an OS X virus.
Which should be just as easy to do as writing an XP virus.
It has now been three months since the fact is widely spread on the internet: to date ZERO virusses for OS X.
And since only 8 milion people use OS X, that's going to stay that way, I mean, 8 milion. Ffffff, nothing!
Regardless of everybody now at least knowing of the mac (what with iTunes and iPod).
Regardless of all the media attention it would get - probably a LOT more than "Hey, here's another Windows virus".
Finally, while not using any real arguments, allow me to say your arguments are baseless. The 'security through obscurity' myth has been debunked with many a good argument and more flair than I have in me.
How can you own an iBook, be into OS X and yet know so little about it's best features: security and stability...
But thank you for this moment of fun.
BTW: errr yes, there are virusses you can get on your mac. Some obsolete macro viruses for word that somehow still infect word for OS X. But Let's just assume for the sake of (my) argument that by virus we mean something that wreaks havoc on your computer.
First time I saw this feature (yes, on Windows) I was frankly blown away, even if it was such a little thing. It was obvious, easy and it wasn't on the Mac.
It was nice to make an app that mimicked this behaviour for the mac, but if one company can share concepts, then why not Apple?
And credits? The fact that Apple hired the actual programmer of the feature isn't credit enough?
If this open letter is a marketing stunt, I'd do a slight rewrite, a bit more upbeat, a bit less beaten up. Would still get the same attention, but people would think better about the company.
Yeah, I remember. Windows is for Intelligent People.
Everybody know, Intelligent People don't have viruses and never have driver problems. They can plug in anything they like and it always works - Even After The Next Security Update.
So yes, the guy must be an idiot. I bet he expected his computer to just work. Hahahaha! What an idiot.
Ahem, I stole this from Calvin and Hobbes. It's phonetic for Knowledge. You can find beginner courses everywhere for free on the net.
Supposing you don't know a lot about HTML and want to do this iTunes trick, the easiest way would be to "borrow" a HTML suit from someone (Adobe Golive, Macromedia Dreamweaver) and do some experimenting.
Try to learn some basics, since you'll have to access the code (which is easy).
Make a page that does it for you (and don't be afraid to rip of the design from another shop, since they've already thought a lot about information and incentives people need in order to talk to their wallets)...
Then do the copy-paste thing from Apple's website.
Go here
You search a number and they generate the code to paste in your html page.
I ripped of a screenshot from the iTunes Store to show my friends that you can use text, pictures etc... It's a no-brainer, you need only a bit of html nollidj
I have heard the following: 80c for the label, 19 split equally between apple and the artist.
That means that apart from the deal between label and artist, Apple pays 9,5c directly to the artist.
The rest - how much of a part of 80c is for the artist and for the label - really depends on the deal labels and artists have.
That's important to note. Labels and artists have their own contracts regardless of Apple.
FYI there's loads and loads of labels out there. Label is not the same as RIAA. And labels do actually do a lot of work.
And there are a lot of labels out there that are partly or wholly artist-controlled.
When all's said and done, producing music is expensive and complicated. Talent is not enough to get from an idea to a finished song/work on a carrier (like a CD or mp3 or whatever).
A lot of that work gets done by labels. A lot of that also depends on the artist. You can decide to pay for your own studio time, production, do your own distribution or get your own deal, choose your tour manager, work together with other artist initiatives. There really are a lot of ways to do this. It's still complicated, and record labels are still a big part of the process. But there's choice, and it gets bigger.
What Apple offers is a fair distribution model and incredibly nice and democratic shelf-space rules. That's a lot more spectacular than people think, believe me. Actually, it's unheard of.
Now, it's still up to the artist to get himself a good deal, that hasn't changed. But there's something very radical happening here, it will change things for the RIAA, not that they'll evaporate into nothingness overnight, but they'll have to find good incentives to get artists to sign up with them...
Here's the original text.
Actually blame the locals. It's a shame European labels can't get their act together...
Apple pays just under 10% directly to the artist. Monthly.
The rest of the money (from the about 80% label cut) comes from the label and depends on the deal they have between them.
I fail to see your point, totally. Especially since a few searches will lead you to artist's comments, independent label comments and music journalist comments. All very favorable to the democratic one size fits all distribution deal Apple provides here.
Know how to spell GOOGLE?
That would be a cool feature in the iTunes shop: search for indies...
...
What's cool about iTunes is they throw their distribution model open, everybody can go in and get the same deal and store space. If musicians still want to be part of RIAA in the near future, they're only screwing themselves
In itself, this one million is meaningless, but as an overall strategy to sell iPods and promote the Mac it's unbeatable. And they have revenues daily, no costs, unbelievable.
...
I wonder how much buymusic.com makes
You have read all those label-artist contracts then, have you?
What apple gives to the labels is one thing. How the labels devide that between them and the artist is another.
Some labels will screw their artists, some are too stupid to make a profit and some will make everybody happy.
That's life.
I'm not out to defend the music industry as a whole btw.
My guess is it's impossible, impractical and incredibly expensive.
Stability on W2k/XP is a lot better with all that multimedia shit.
If I were them, I wouldn't go out of my way to support a platform that doesn't support them and is on its way out.
This said, I do sympathize.
I am now in the process of applying for membership.
You are very right, this formula is not supporting the artist PER SE.
But give labels and artists some credit, and above all, give Apple some credit.
First off: this is by far the easiest distribution deal you can get as a smaller label. And by easy I mean clear, no nonsense and not labor or cost intensive.
Second: since Apple doesn't demand exclusivity, this is a good add-on, regardless of other distribution or obligations.
Third: not every label is out to screw the artist. The 80 dollarcent is for the label. OK, but do you know the deal labels have with their artists? It only means Apple gives this percentage to the artists, this percentage to the labels and let them fight amongst themselves. As a distributor that's only fair. To do it any other way means not doing it at all, or do you think every artist is waiting to do its own production, book-keeping, legal work, etc etc?
Fourth: this is a great opportunity for labels and artists who are aware of what they do to make more profit per sale instead of less. By cutting some of the costs, by being able to make a cheap-ass non-programming, hardly any coding music store on their own websites without all the hassle. The iTunes link creator seriously kicks ASS!!!!
Check out the stupid example I put online for my friends in Belgium: http://www.verspeelt.com/itunes/
Fifth: Apple is making a serious appeal to indies. Indies are mostly musicians or ex-musicians themselves. Maybe not every one of them is nice, bright and clean, but these are not the big Enemy of the Artist, and sometimes better equipped to give iTMS the data they need.
Sixth: OK, CD production is not the only big cost artists (or their labels) have to cope with, but it's one of the biggest.
With this distribution model, you'll still need CD production for quite a few years to come, but regardless, you need to produce your music.
studio's are expensive,
good sound technicians are expensive and artists - or at least professionals - in their own right
artwork is expensive
And being able to win part of that back with a distribution model that costs you nothing and keeps you out of the big five's grasp but with the same shop exposure is incredibly EMPOWERING.
Seventh: In a perfect world, music is free. Chicks and guys fall out of the sky every time you get horny, world-peace and happiness for all. In this world, you don't just throw away an initiative that gives a bit back to the artist and indies and makes fans happy.
I'm seriously hoping this whole iTunes thing gets big.
You wouldn't be able to do what you say at the cost you state. Not with all the built in redundancy.
;-)
Well, if you'd do this just for yourself, who cares. Then I can see the temptation to just go out and build the bastard. But I can't see institutions go for the "I come with the machine" deal
Which is a lot worse than "Yeah, it'll work, of course, nope, never tried it ourselves, but hey..."