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It would be nice to get some Japanese music in to iTMS Europe
iTMS has separate catalog to every single country and that sucks

First post btw.

Sony better listen to those artists otherwise they aint gonna have any artists to put on their crappy store.

It amazes me how ignorant and determined businesses are - even though it makes perfect business sense to throw in the towel.

Admit defeat Sony - iTunes IS THE ONLY STORE PEOPLE WANT TO USE.

Back in the 1920's a group of movie stars decided to start their own movie studio to get away from the strong armed movie moguls that existed.

United Artists was born.

Appears to me that musicians should start their own "music studios" to propagate their creative talents.

Rent the movie "The Corporation" to see why corporations like Sony are so evil. It's because they're psychopaths, and this movie proves it.

I don't think sony calls their store the "iTunes Music Store," Apple might get a little upset.

Fight the power! F.U. Sony

"Sony Music spokesman Yasushi Ide said Sano is no longer considered 'a Sony artist,' although negotiations will decide whether his recordings under the Sony label will be offered at iTunes or not. The outcome will depend on each contract, and talks are continuing, he said."

This shows how unenforceable a contract with a major label is. Sano has a lot of balls to just walk away like this, and I have to give him some mad props for doing so.

It's about time that the creative side of the music industry realized they don't need their music pimped out by Sony or BMG or Warner. In this age of near-instantaneous worldwide electronic distribution, the old inefficient models don't apply anymore. And there's precedent with this sort of action: Wilco walked away from their major label and became HUGE... so huge that the same major label wound up paying them twice for an album that they said was unlistenable. Sano's audience will follow him to wherever he winds up, and he'll become the Jeff Tweedy of Japan.

Sano, hats off to you; way to call Sony's bluff. Now, if only I could purchase some of your music off the iTMS, to show my support...

Surely if Apple got to the point where iTms was the standard worldwide they would then be forced by governments to open it up under monopoly laws? At this point the record companies wouldn't have a problem. If I were them I would run towards iTms, get the format war(s) out of the way and concentrate on making money.

I agree with "One Guy from Finland", the next big issue for Apple is removing the country restrictions for purchasing music.

I admit, I'm concern about the next stage of music contracts with music labels. I think, the music labels will do everything in their power to screw that up. But they will have to weigh their desire for music sales against their desire to control the distribution.

I would love for the next issue to be pushed by Apple, would be to keep the various countries' music stores, but allow users to purchase across borders. What would be super cool, is if I'm registered with the US, could get US prices regardless of which store I purchase from; and not have to register with any other stores. That would rock. I'd be purchasing from the Europe and Canadian stores all the time, and there is a fair amount of Japanese music I want as well.

I love roaming through the stores of other countries, but its irritating that the best I can do is listen to the music videos. Especially since some countries still have less than 25 videos available.

I'd love to see artist revolt across the board, not just in Japan but in other countries. Junk your label.

Alex B:

The sentence says, "Sony, with their 'iTunes Music Store stalling,'" not "Sony, with their 'iTunes Music Store.'" See related articles.

MDN said: [I]Sony, with their iTunes Music Store stalling and bogus Microsoft Windows Media DRM-laden non-Compact Discs[/I]

You meant: with their Sony Connect music store stalling.

smiles...

Prometheus, "This shows how unenforceable a contract with a major label is."

Actually, most of the contracts are very, very enforceable -- even the abusive ones.

This is why Prince (aka, weird symbol, "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, TAFKAP, etc.) used that strange symbol and then the TAFKAP type reference. The music label with which he signed had a strong, enforceable contract with him. As his popularity grew he felt the contract was far too restrictive and abusive. It controlled his products and even the use of his name.

I would be very surprised if any significant fraction of contracts between the major labels and the artists have any major flaws in them which would allow the artists to get out of them purely at will.

MikeR:

Of course, the irony in your post is that United Artists ultimately became part of corporate America when they were purchased by Transamerica Corporation and, following Cimino's financially disastrous Heaven's Gate, they became part of Kerkorian's MGM empire and eventually owned by a bunch of French bankers.

And now, in 2005, they're owned by Sony who desperately wanted control of the 007 franchise - so after seventy years, the result is the same.

I've heard that Anheuser-Busch makes each of there beer divisions compete against each other as if they were different companies. So Bud-Light competes against Michelob, etc. Kind of a smart tactic, and maybe that's why they are so successful at selling beer.

I think mega-companies like Sony, Time-Warner are going to have to do this with their different divisions to stay alive. Sony is a perfect example. They should make their Electronic division compete to win over their music divisions business, if they can't come up with a compelling product or solution, to bad they lost out to another company. But at least the music division comes out on top, and the mega-company still makes money, cause more artist would be willing to sign with them.

Makes sense to me.

heh. They're jumpin' ship! lol!

Hey listen friends .. seems iTunes Japan has a 'New Music Wednesday' Newsletter: http://www.apple.com/jp/itunes/subscribe/ .. (no, I couldn't find any Podcast by that name .. yet)

Anyways .. the New Music Wednesday newsletter won't seem to let me sign up for it: "[an error occurred while processing this directive]". Could somebody else try it? Enter your email twice and click the button. Any luck?

Sup with that? Apple is excluding western email addys, or what? I might have to mutiny .. or sumpin'. ahaha

This is extremely good news. First Sony, then Time-Warner, then Clear Channel and Best Buy. It's a revolution!

*SLAP* Back to reality... while I love the thought of the artists getting more control (and more of the profits) I know what ultimately happens, as the United Artists story above shows. Artists do not make good businessmen most of the time.

One need only look at Apple - Records, that is. The Beatles thought to themselves "Hey, we're bigger than Jesus (not literally, let's not go there), let's start using our power to help other artists get records made." Anyone with a little knowledge of Apple Records history knows what happened. A bunch of freeloaders jumped on board, took the reins, and drove the whole thing south faster than a locomotive off a cliff. A few (very few... James Taylor & Badfinger are the only ones that come to mind) artists actually got recordings out and became "successful". Mostly a lot of money was dumped in and around the pockets of shifty characters like "Magic Alex".

Artistic freedom? You bet'cha. I'm all for it. Dumping old-school business models of distribution that are outdated by 20 years or more? Yee-haw! Giddyup on that little pony.

But artists managing their own affairs and signing contracts and promoting their own music? Most will fail. There will always be a keen market for the middle-man. Same reason there's still a need for real estate agents or lawyers. Because individuals don't want to learn a whole area of expertise just to excercise the option of selling a house or filing a lawsuit.

The question then, is... can the artists mass and create enough pressure to force the middlemen to throw out the old business models and compete in this new era? Or throw out the old middlemen (Sony, Warner, et al) and allow new ones to step in. Step one is for artists to rebel against the corporate yokels TELLING the customers what they want, instead informing them (broken contract in hand, if necessary) that you would prefer GIVING the customers what they REALLY want.

THAT'S where the revolution is at.

I don't see how you can accuse Sony of trying to "cheat their way" into the game. They've clearly got the technological edge, since they can fit 13,000 songs onto a 20-gigabyte device, for example.

I love the artists' backlash. I hope they all wake up and realize that they don't need the record labels nowhere near as much as in decades past. It's a digital revolution and Apple is leading the charge.

MDN said: "Sony, with their iTunes Music Store stalling..."

Some of us long-time readers knew what you meant.

When a product becomes so popular that the name of the product becomes the name for all products in their category, then it has become truly ubiquitous. Examples include: saying 'Kleenex' to refer to all facial tissues; 'Coke' to refer to all syrupy, carbonated beverages; 'Q-tip' to refer to all cotton swabs.

The reference to Sony's iTunes Music Store is understood.

MDN said exactly what they meant: "Sony, with their iTunes Music Store stalling..."

They are referring to Sony's tactics of undermining the iTunes Music Store by not giving up their music to Apple, ie. stalling. This is clarified when the next part of the sentence reads "...and bogus Microsoft Windows Media DRM-laden non-Compact Discs." CD's which cannot be ripped to the iPod.

These are Sony attempts to push people away from the iTunes Music Store and iPod in hope of Sony surviving in the portable MP3 player market. Hence, MDN states "[Sony] have clearly lost and are now in the last throes of their lame, failed attempts to cheat their way into the portable digital music player game."

If Sony wanted to they could sue these musicians into history. The problem with this scenario is:

1. Negative publicity for their sub-standard product and

2. Turning the musicians into martyrs

And Sony can't afford any bad publicity.

Finally, I'd just like to remind all MDN's readers that Sony is preventing Apple's download service from operating in Australia.

Perhaps Apple will now exhibit the same gutsy approach they used in Japan in the Australian market. However, I am yet to be convinced.

Rent the movie "The Corporation" to see why corporations like Sony are so evil. It's because they're psychopaths, and this movie proves it

---

Apple's a Corporation...

They're also a bit of an anomaly.. they've said in the past that they could make billions selling Windows boxes if they wanted , but would rather do something interesting than just make money.

Er.. which is why the only Dell Fanboys.. are actually employees (like Paul Thurrott)

Question: if you guys are so sure Sony is stalling the Aussie iTMS.. WHY THE F WOULD THEY NOT STALL THE JAPAN iTMS?!

I mean.. do i have to spell it out.. Apple dominating Japan is a helluva lot more important to Sony than.. Australia?!

It doesn't make sense.. surely if they had the power to 'stall' they'd be doing it in places like... oh.. i dont know.. THE UK, AND THE US?

You know.. major markets?

We are seeing the first real stirring of the revolution.

iTunes is now on the verge of reaching critical mass. By that, I mean that iTMS is on the verge of having enough influence to start causing artists to sign directly with Apple. Apple will become, in effect, its own label.

Why? Because musicians are starting to realize that they can see a bigger bottom line by cutting the record labels out of the deal. Signing directly with iTMS will also mean they can probably retain more control over their works and not sell their souls to satisfy the greedy. vain, short-sighted manipulative exec pigs that run the big labels.

Once iTMS hits 1 billions songs sold per year, I think you'll see a big name artist distribute exclusively with iTMS (at least for song downloads). This is probably the biggest reason Apple needs to maintain control over FreePlay and not license it out, so that it can carve a sufficiently big stick to keep the label away and grow a sufficiently big carrot to attract the big names in exclusive deals.

As per it's agreement with Apple Corps., Apple computer cannot become a label.

Power to the people. SONY is being arrogant if it thinks fans will only purchase their favorite artists' work from one source. Legitimate online music libraries need the full support of the labels and SONY is playing politics.

good point from ;guyfromFinland...gotta be able to get access to music from olther countries...which leads me to ask; 'must I travel to say Japan, log on to ITMS to d'load Japanse music?

How about if I work for a massive global bank in the West with offices in Japan, can I access Japan ITMS thru our 'intranet'?

Any help greatly appreciated.

MW= having...as in having the option to d'load music from other countries (legally of course)

Apple Computer doesn't need to become a label, it simply purchases a label and allows it to continue trading under its historic existing name as a privately-held subsidiary, as eMagic did until recently.

Curiously, the Apple Computer/Apple Corps agreement is alleged to prevent Apple Computer from being involved with eMagic: however, Logic and all of its siblings have recently become Apple Computer products which seems to indicate that either a) we really don't know what's in the agreement or that b) Apple Computer has decided to front it out.

What's the market value of Apple Records? Any chance Apple Computer can just buy the damn thing? Bye-bye lawsuit, hello exclusive rights to the Beatles on iTMS.

Hey One Guy From Finland, nice to see you again and you have a great point.
Music needs to be globalized. Peace defeats war.