itunes vs. Retail

[Luciferious]

Obviously it is best to purchase directly from the band, but in general (and specifically for Watershed), which point of purchase is most profitable for the band: itunes or a retailer?

 

[Crepuscularia]

Retailer. Because if you buy from itunes, you eventually realize that MP3 is a crap format and stop buying music altogether.

 

[ever dying]

Probably iTunes.. As there are no pressing costs etc. involved

 

[Metamyr]

My guess is it's probably the same. I think usually record companies say that the band gets X dollars from each album they sell. The record company would probably be the ones to see the profit difference depending on the medium.

 

[DEMIgOD]

yeah it probably evens out. the price of packaging and shipping is probably about the cost that Apple takes from useing their service

 

[liquidcow]

Yeh I don't think the band gets more money from one or the other. What most bands make most of their money from is actually merchandise.

 

[Lightbulb Sun]

And ticket sales.

 

[fsgdjv]

Retail because iTunes sucks and buying from iTunes makes you suck and it's not good for the band to have sucky fans.

 

[Kenneth R.]

Retail is probably better. iTunes is evil.

 

[Lightbulb Sun]

As someone who gets no time to get to CD stores and having iTunes conveniently placed in front of him, I resent that.

 

[Metamyr]

And yeah, bands don't actually make the majority of their money from the albums. They make much much more from touring and merch. It's the record companies that make the big bucks off the albums.

 

[Labyrinth of Blindness]

As someone who gets no time to get to CD stores and having iTunes conveniently placed in front of him, I resent that.

I completely agree. Plus the fact that I have purchased well over 500 CDs and have no more room to store them all. Not saying I don't buy them anymore, but if it's something I can live without owning a solid copy, I turn to iTunes.

 

[wwallinga]

Exactly.

 

[Kenneth R.]

That makes me sad for the future of music and the rise of Apple's clone army.

 

[Tumn]

shiTunes.

Hard copies always win.

 

[soundave]

As has been proven on this forum in another thread, most of you anti-MP3 motherfuckers can't even tell the difference between a 192bit rip and CD quality... I don't accept the "MP3's sound like shit" debate from about 98% of the people here. If you have other reasons (I'm thinking of Kenneth, for example) then fine. But seriously, I don't accept that most of the people here can tell the difference. Sorry.

 

[hibernal_dream]

I wouldn't blame them, most people CAN tell the difference if they are listening on a good enough system. I don't think i'd be able to tell the difference with earphones, but with a good system I definitely can.

 

[Whisper and Weep]

CD's>Itunes and always will.

 

[Kenneth R.]

Yeah, although the quality is an issue for me, the main objection is the downfall of physical media as an art, and the growing influence of a single monopolizing distributor with questionable business practices.

 

[soundave]

I wouldn't blame them, most people CAN tell the difference if they are listening on a good enough system. I don't think i'd be able to tell the difference with earphones, but with a good system I definitely can.

If someone never listens on a "good" system, then it doesn't matter. Their biggest problem isn't MP3's, it's a shitty playback system. Period. And on top of that, seriously, if you see the old thread, it's embarassing how bad most people performed.