"The iPod has f***ed all of this, in a way. The decade we've just left will never be forgotten."
So says Simon Drake, 24-year-old owner/producer of indie record company Naim Label, who is trying to explain to TechRadar what the last 10 years have done to the music business - a time in which music has seemingly been commoditised, debased and devalued by everything from the X-Factor to CD giveaways, digital downloads and ringtones.
"When iTunes launched in 2005 in the UK in terms of selling music, it's amazing. Even the way they [Apple] dictated price: based on the knowledge that they were going to sell millions of iPods worldwide, saying 'screws you guys, we're going to sell it for 79p a song'. It's changed music. It has accelerated the culture of the under-pricing of music."
Music as a commodity
While 79p sounds like a great deal for the average X-Factor fan, Drake argues that the effect has been to make life much harder for specialised labels like his.
"We don't really shift enough units for iTunes to want to place our business. If all of my album sales were iTunes album sales I would have been out of a job a long time ago. What's happened is that Apple has dictated the price of music to the market, which at the time, was drastically less than it needed to be.
"It's fine if you're a major label, you can find other ways of making money, but we don't licence stuff to TV. We rely on the sales of music to the consumer. That's always been a big issue of mine. I've always been slightly angry that they [Apple] rushed off and set their own price and have dominated the market ever since because it [the iTunes Store] is so easy to use."
And dominate it has. Apple's iTunes Store became the biggest music retailer in the US last year with 25 per cent of all digital and physical music sales. Compare digital downloads alone, and iTunes' dominance rises to 69 per cent of the total US market.
In the UK the situation is arguably even worse, with iTunes share said to be around 90 per cent.
The impact is there for us all to see. Squeezed by supermarkets on the one side and digital downloads on the other, old school record shops have been rapidly disappearing from our high streets, leaving those that remain to focus on other, more profitable, areas instead. Last year HMV said music sales accounted for just 28 per cent of its revenue, a fall of 9 per cent in just two years.
NO-POD: Naim's Simon Drake has forthright views on the impact the iPod has had on the music industry
Another complaint you'll hear from creatives about the iPod and digital downloads is that they've not only devalued the financial currency of music, but they've made it disposable too. Ian Morrow, record producer (Seal, Wet Wet Wet, Lisa Stansfield) and co-founder of Kerchoonz, the social networking and music download site says:
"I was listening to what Warners said about its decision to remove its music from streaming sites and they were talking about the value of music - and the value of music is really important. Just by it being like running water, everywhere all the time, it has no value. It is a complete commodity. There is no 'must go down to the record shop this afternoon, because they'll probably be sold out by Monday'."
That's great if you're a massive music fan who doesn't like paying huge sums for long-deleted albums, but it also means the artefact - the record, the song, the download - no longer has any intrinsic value - at least not to a certain generation.
You can download something one minute and delete it the next - there's no sense of ownership or occasion like you had with a CD or vinyl collection any more.
Short attention spans
"It [the iPod] has become so prevalent in people's live's now that it's really helped accelerate this culture of having a very short attention span," says Naim's Simon Drake.
"In terms of what it does for the music itself? You watch kids on an iPod in a group, they'll play 20 seconds of a song, they'll all scream and laugh, and then they'll change it to the next 20 seconds of another song.
"We're not actually helping develop any love or desire towards music or the thought process behind actually making it. One of my biggest problems, is - as someone from the independent sector who's not trying to make a quick buck - I'm trying to make compelling albums that people will hopefully sit down and enjoy in their entirety.
"I don't think for a minute that Apple thought that was going to be the case. It's human nature, our will to be lazy is becoming ever more present. it's our fault, not Apple's fault."
Your comments (15) Click to add a new comment
crowfeather
February 26th 2010
15. In show biz, perception is reality especially when it comes to price. If your music is perceived as worthless, then it is. This is the common perception of the prime demographic of music purchasers, 12-25 year olds. This is also the reason you see the 50+ artists "selling" units, like Susan Boyle and Sade. People in their demo graphic realize Rockstars are different than most people, the younger demographics think they all are rock stars themselves. Hey just read their facebooks and see them rock it on American Idol. I would agree Ipod's sound like *** and I've had some industry people complain my music doesn't sound good on "earbuds" because of the utilization of the full sound spectrum in my mixes. Because ear buds lack any low end and are respond to mostly upper midrange (tinny), a full spectrum mix designed for a hi-fi running sub-woofers and a 3 way crossover, will sound terrible on those damned earbuds.
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trommelkopf
February 26th 2010
14. So it's got nothing to do with the total inability of the record industry to respond to Shawn Fanning? Napster was introduced in 1999, for the youngsters in the audience, six years before iTunes.
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tastychops
February 25th 2010
13. A 24 year old explaining what the last 10 years have done to the industry!! Sorry but I am not going to take this seriously.
As a 32 who experiances ageism in his own industry, yes I am being ageist :)
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nitrofan
February 24th 2010
12. I have heard some nonsense from the “music industry” sic, over the years, but to start laying the blame for their demise over the last 30 years at the door of a music player is a bit rich!.
The fact is many record labels and indeed a whole industry, were built on the blatant OVERPRICING of music for years!
The expense account lifestyles of executives, the flamboyant record launches, the private jets and pampering of over hyped “Music Stars” and elaborate sleeves that became more collectible than their contents were ALL funded through over priced record sales, all that iTunes and its ilk have done is introduce the power of the mass market to the “music industry”
The record labels had a great opportunity to embrace new technology napster being a superb example, yet the chose to use the power of the courts in a vain attempt to control it maintain high prices and retain their lifestyle.
There is a reason people buy electronic music its priced right and it fits the pace of modern life
Plenty of indy labels have embraced “New Technology” and done rather well from it, this bleating on about iTunes driving down the price of music smacks of the last hurrah of the print unions in their bitter war against modernisation
People do not by big hifi’s to listen to their discs any longer, they went out with the Arctic roll and the black forest gateaux when you listen through head phones or a pod dock the bit rate issue become irrelevant, a little like vinyl 20 years after WH Smiths stopped selling it!
And as for blaming the X-Factor for low standards in music? Sign new refreshing acts that play instruments, sing their own songs and don’t rely upon a sampler, and you might see a revival in people’s interest in music and a desire to listen to the whole track.
I short don’t blame the medium for delivering mediocre material raise the standard of the product THAT is still the territory of the “Record Industry”.
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paul
February 24th 2010
11. Thanks for the comments. The article isn't intended to be biased or tabloid style - we've run many pieces in the past extolling the virtues of the iPod and digital music (and occasionally been called Apple fanboys as a result). In this instance we wanted to look at the downsides of digital music and how it might be shaping the music industry over the years to come.
Simon - sorry you weren't quoted in entirety, but we had a lot of interview material to include from many people and so unfortunately we did have to cut some material.
Paul, TechRadar
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mattswain
February 24th 2010
10. @simondrake
Your comment about the iTunes store being a legal and convenient alternative to file sharing and general theft is absolutely bang on.
If musicians and record companies think they've got it bad now, imagine no iTunes store and the rampant piracy that would likely go with it. Don't fool yourself, every sale made on iTunes would not equal a physical purchase on the high street if it didn't exist. There's a lot of impulse purchases there for a start and at 79p per track you're much more likely to take a gamble on someone you don't know than if you have buy an entire album to find out.
Embrace the technology instead of whinging about it as it's not going away any time soon.
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shadowtd
February 24th 2010
9. @simondrake: You expected TechRadar to be fair and unbiased? But there's no tabloid-style click-grabbing headline in that!
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psyfur
February 24th 2010
8. Windy is my hero ^^
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stu531
February 23rd 2010
7. @Simondrake - very wise words. I'd never thought of the iPod in this way, but you make a lot of sense. It's all part of the rapid consumption of content.
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windymiller
February 23rd 2010
6. @ simondrake
You gave an interview to a site that is so far up apple's @rse, they need an app on their iphones to light the way back.
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simondrake
February 23rd 2010
5. It is unfortunate for me that this article doesn’t cover the entire conversation!
Yes, iPods are great for music consumption in general and their market dominance, with the young and old, is understandable given the strength and functionality of the design!
Anything that helps people consume music in general terms is great.
It’s so easy to get hold of anything you want in the digital domain without having to pay for it, that actually iTunes, the iPod and the discovery of new music that the information age offers are all very very good things!
It’s a shame TR also chose not to include the points I made on the rate at which bandwidth and soft-storage sizes are advancing (very rapidly) and that the iPod will not only be the friend of the MP3 generation, but also discerning high fidelity music lovers too, very soon.
The MP3 generation has also provided indies with an opportunity to get ahead of the game by offering higher quality downloads themselves, for which we receive a more sustainable recompense.
Apple will and already has (by offering a legitimate alternative to file sharing and music piracy), come to the music industries aid, and in comparison to other current online solutions is a far more attractive business model.
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mattswain
February 23rd 2010
4. Surely digital music and digital publishing has been a good thing for many artists? With the big record labels going more and more for the same old tripe, it would be virtually impossible for anyone who strayed from 'the formula' to get published and heard any more.
I love my iPod and no it doesn't stop me listening to whole albums. I listen to more music than ever because of it and I'm always buying new albums as a result.
Trying to blame the iPod for kids turning up with poor quality demos is just nonsense. Shouldn't we be encouraged that kids are trying to make music and encourage them to do it better?
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peterjohn
February 23rd 2010
3. I agree with pete_l - they need to focus on their audience.
As far as the mp3 sound quality argument - Sure low quality mp3s might give the future audiophile a bad frame of reference NOW, but if you just wait for bandwidth to catch up - you'll be seeing lossless audio everywhere.
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pete_l
February 23rd 2010
2. Sounds like this guy needs to work out what market he's in. iPod style music is pure entertainment - that's all. If the consumers wish to be entertained by low quality, throwaway **** then that's fine - it's their money. No point in crying "but darhling, I'm an artiiiste!" - no-one cares. If he wants to go for the high end then he needs to realise that trying to push that through the iPod channel won't work: its the wrong audience and they're not receptive. Plus (as he says) his low volumes can't compete on price.
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d4lien
February 23rd 2010
1. In defence of Apple, albeit only slightly, I would say that generic pop music had already started destroying music before iTunes got it's wrecking ball swinging.
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