This wasn’t planned as a column and I sure as hell never expected to write an article on what is an extremely positive development for my long-time life partner, Apple Computers, and paint it in a negative light - but here we are. Two days later after the disillusioning break up (how could you Stereogum?) at a planned lunch with friends. Staring at one another across the table, realizing we spent every waking minute together yet we were working for different goals all along. I don’t even know you anymore and the the truth of the matter (and the most painful part) is that you may have never known me either.
Placing another nail in the coffin of brick and mortar record stores and the packaging that fills them (don’t they know how much you all love my design reviews and need new product? Is my “Cover” column soon to be a nostalgia act?) Apple is getting ready to report some shockingly good news. Eric Bangeman at arstechnica.com (credit where credit is due) reported yesterday that “an e-mail sent this afternoon to some Apple employees, a copy of which was seen by Ars Technica. It includes a screenshot of an Excel file showing the top ten music retailers in the US for January 2008, and Apple is at the top of the list. The iTunes Store leads the pack with 19 percent, Wal-Mart (which includes the brick-and-mortar stores as well as its online properties) is second with 15 percent, and Best Buy is third with 13 percent. Amazon is a distant fourth at 6 percent, trailed by the likes of Borders, Circuit City, and Barnes & Noble. Rhapsody is in the tenth slot with 1 percent.”
To be clear - this is not just digital music sales but the whole salami! Every last CD in every last bin, of which itunes has none. Certainly fueled by kids e-cashing in gift cards, post holiday sales were likely to boost all of the retailers with strong digital bases but it seems that only itunes truly emerged as THE place to get that loved one 99 cents worth of Kanye, Willie, Madge or The Mountain Goats - however your tastes run. It warms my heart to think that everyone made a mad rush on the new Why? disc and so I will lay my head down at night with that belief held tight.
To say this is a shock is an understatement. Apple had been lingering around the top 5 but had suddenly made a dramatic jump this holiday season and seemingly parlayed that momentum into the final push to the top. Knocking them from the perch will likely be impossible as the labels finally are coming around to dropping DRM restraints (which is why I haven’t purchased anything on itunes for a good year or longer as they kept stopping my shuffle when running on my desktop for the fancy speakers but pulling from my laptop’s itunes - geeky I know.)
The idea of eventually having a place where all music is available to sample and purchase is an exciting possibility soon to be realized. I don’t want to stop progress. I just suppose I didn’t know it would get here so quickly. What this means for traditional music packaging and record stores and the “old” way of doing things is a further push into the niche end of the business. These things won’t go away all together, but they will certainly become scarce. And that makes me sad.
So congrats Apple. You deserve it.
I mean it. I really do.
(cue “We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful”)
fade out
Got dang April Fool’s…
April 4, 2008 at 7:59 amScoff as you may, but new LPs have been outselling new CDs for months now at Crooked Beat Records.
Especially with so many labels now providing free mp3 downloads included with the vinyl purchase of an album, I don’t think LPs overtaking CDs sounds like such a far off thing… I think it’s totally possible that the market will be split between mp3s and LPs, with CDs falling by the wayside.
Fools on the LP - not the itunes - just in case folks don’t read the cnet post. No looking back…
April 4, 2008 at 8:47 amI had a hunch it would come to this. Let’s see if they stay in the top. I hope this means a strong frontier for independent labels and artists.
April 4, 2008 at 9:34 amWhat is in the picture at the top of the article? Acrylic billiards balls with 3D apple logos embedded in them? Is that a picture of a real thing or is it CG?
April 4, 2008 at 10:33 amI call geek on myself: I want raw PCM data. Therefore, if I want more than one song from an album, I’m usually going to buy the physical CD. It’s still the highest-quality version of the songs you can get. You can add that phono warmth artifically with software, if you really want it.
That said, I am sitting right next to a turntable, my In Rainbows Discbox, and two other vinyl albums I got for my birthday: Air’s Pocket Symphony and Tori Amos’s American Doll Posse. And I love all three. I do have a soft spot in my heart for vinyl, the medium of my early childhood (yes, yes, I was born in ‘81, and cassette tape was arguably more popular than vinyl in the ’80’s, but I still had my parents’ vinyl and my sesame street albums to spin once in a while)
April 4, 2008 at 3:34 pmNicely written, John. I really enjoyed reading this. I don’t mind iTunes being number one. The record industry had it coming. And I like downloading…sure, I liked nicely packaged records too…but this course is better for the environment. So it’s at most a trade-off in my book. Plus I used to go to independent record stores and get made fun of by the Wilco-loving clerks for getting really excited to buy a used copy of Erasure’s “Wild!” So…fuck ‘em. iTunes wins.
April 4, 2008 at 3:57 pmI still buy many CD’s, for the reasons Al stated, but also cause I’m into packaging like John. I convert them all to mp3’s and put them on a big music server and stream them wirelessly to my stereo via a Squeezebox. I also have an emusic subscription. Only use Apple for video. I do not own a turntable. I listen to my music more in my car, other peoples car, my office, and on the go than I do at home, which is the only place a turntable would make sense. So I think purchasing vinyl is a little silly.
I don’t really have a point to this comment, just wanted to talk about myself.
April 4, 2008 at 3:59 pmTaylor - you should totally get an emusic subscription - specializes in indie labels and no DRM.
Amazon mp3 is good tooooooo
April 4, 2008 at 4:02 pmI second the emusic love (more to come on that soon.) The Crooked Beat breakdown points out one of the aftermaths I anticipate happening. Vinyl will continue to be available for a niche audience. On-line the song is the thing again - like the 50s when the 45 ruled the day. It is a wonderful time to be an independent musician - if you tour and sell lots of merch. Now you can reach more people and see a few bucks where as you never would have seen royalties on a major. Packaging will continue as well but I think it will become more niche oriented and therefore less prevalent but more engaging and involved when it does happen.
For the record - I have a wonderful stereo system and turntable at home, crappy CD players everywhere with one magnificent one at home and fancy speakers on my work desktop. I listen to music everywhere non-stop except for at home. Silly I know. On the occasion I do put on a record I LOVE it though. I have purchased 20 vinyl discs this year already without getting around to listening to them.
I don’t know what the point of that was - I just like talking about Cale.
April 4, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Also LP sales surpass CDs!
April 4, 2008 at 7:18 am