PP effect in iTunes

Bamafan

Member
Sep 11, 2010
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Heart of Dixie
I've noticed that the closer we get to September, more of the lineup's cataloges are available on iTunes. When the lineup was first announced, I couldn't find much, if any Sanctuary, Voyager, Mob Rules, Red Circuit, or Dream Evil listed. Over the past month or two, I've been able to be able to download more of these bands' CDs onto my iPad. ITunes is still light on Labyrinth, but I'm hopeful more will become available soon.
 
I wonder if Apple has a few staff in the department who track spikes or new appearances in iTunes searches. If they suddenly notice a huge amount of searches for certain bands in a short period of time, and they aren't carrying that band, it might send them a prompt to get it.

iTunes is now my first choice go-to to hear band samples. This is even if I get the CD elsewhere either at a store or web order. But for quick samples, it's just the easiest way - full quality, usually better than Youtube, and much easier to use than myspace.
 
I wonder if Apple has a few staff in the department who track spikes or new appearances in iTunes searches. If they suddenly notice a huge amount of searches for certain bands in a short period of time, and they aren't carrying that band, it might send them a prompt to get it.

iTunes is now my first choice go-to to hear band samples. This is even if I get the CD elsewhere either at a store or web order. But for quick samples, it's just the easiest way - full quality, usually better than Youtube, and much easier to use than myspace.

I suspect the tracking of new searches is automated. Apple doesn't miss many tricks to make a buck. It's kind of sad, but I don't use anything other than an iPod or iPad to listen to music these days because I do most of my listening in my car, at the gym, or at the hospital when I'm on call.
 
I got most of it on Zune Marketplace/Pass the night the lineup was announced, other than Creation's End which showed up eventually after it released, but I purchased that on disc at the insider sale anyway.

Sadly still no Return to Heaven Denied Pt. 1 (do have Pt. 2) or the new Darkwater though (do have the old), so I plan to pick those up on disc soon. And no Evergrey except the latest. Zune must not have an agreement with Inside Out.
 
I would guess it's mostly coincidence. iTunes has some exclusive agreements (the Beatles being the most notable), but I would be really surprised if they devoted any effort to securing relatively small-potatoes like Red Circuit. For the most part it's the catalogs of digital distributors that determines what's available at the various retailers. A label says "oh, we should make this album available for download", they make an agreement with a digital distributor, and that distributor makes it available to iTunes, Amazon, Zune, etc. simultaneously. So it would be sort of pointless for iTunes to prod a band/label, since it would cause their competitors to also add the album to their catalog, and then they're immediately back to square one.

Even today, almost a decade after the idea of selling downloadable music was established, old catalog albums still make their appearances randomly and regularly. You would think that everything recorded in the last 20 years would all be available by now, but for some reason there are corners of the music world still slowly trickling out.

Neil
 
I wonder if Apple has a few staff in the department who track spikes or new appearances in iTunes searches. If they suddenly notice a huge amount of searches for certain bands in a short period of time, and they aren't carrying that band, it might send them a prompt to get it.

iTunes is now my first choice go-to to hear band samples. This is even if I get the CD elsewhere either at a store or web order. But for quick samples, it's just the easiest way - full quality, usually better than Youtube, and much easier to use than myspace.

iTunes does not own the rights to the music, they can't just "get it." They aren't a retailer that can order stock from a label. As Neil said, it's a function of a label sending the release to its distro for distribution. And also, I kind of chuckled at the idea of iTunes paying staff to make sure that Red Circuit and Voyager are being sold. The $2,000 a year (and I'm being optimistic) they make from those bands wouldn't even scratch the surface of recoupment of any sort of salary.

If anything, it's the "PP effect" influencing the label to do more with the release. :D


Oh and Dream Evil was released on Century Media. It was always available on iTunes. You just didn't look hard enough.