Record Labels: iTunes is Killing Album Sales

In Thursday's Wall Street Journal, Ethan Smith and Nick Wingfield reported in "More Artists Steer Clear of iTunes" that iTunes is negatively impacting album sales for certain artists. AC/DC, for one, has resisted offering it's catalog through iTunes because of Apple's insistence that songs must be made available individually rather than solely as a complete album.

While certain artists may be able to maximize profits by only offering their music as a complete album, I'm not buying that the music industry overall is suffering because iTunes offers songs a la carte. Rather, I think the problem is that the album is so 1980's. Sure, I'm a child of the 60's and 70's and I've bought lots of complete albums in my day. Heck, I still buy complete albums on iTunes for artists I enjoy. I recently bought Gavin DeGraw's new album. Love it. I also recently bought Third Day's "Revelation" album on iTunes. I love it too. I also pay for satellite radio in two cars and a boat and I subscribe to Rhapsody too. I enjoy music and I consume it many different ways.

Here's the rub, though. Like so many other music consumers, the way I listen to music is changing. Even though I have hundreds of complete albums in my iTunes library, I rarely listen to music that way. I am constantly shuffling my library. I don't even make structured playlists. I think album sales are declining because the album is an outmoded way of organizing music. Usually, the album was all about distribution. It was more cost effective to record, mass produce, distribute, and promote a collection of songs rather than one at a time. The digital medium makes all that obsolete. I can now issue one song at a time just as efficiently as I can release an entire album. Maybe more efficiently. I can evaluate my audience's reaction to "I Kissed a Girl" and decide which song in my catalogue I want to promote next, and I can time the release exactly as the popularity of my first hit begins to wane.

I have no sympathy for the argument that record companies want me to spend $16 to buy an entire CD of music just to get access to the hot single I wanted to listen too. If the entire album is worth buying, I'll buy it. If not, make a better album next time! The article quotes the Eagles talking about how little money they make from iTunes. How much do most artists actually see from any form of record sales? Isn't touring where the money is?

I think this is just one more attempt by the record labels to try to get back some of the power they ceded to Apple by making such a mess of digital music distribution before and since Apple got in the game. It's pathetic and all to obvious. I love music, and I respect the artists. I encourage more of them to experiment with direct music sales the way Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and others are. Shed yourselves of the record labels and the RIAA. It's time.