Apple Holding Back the Music Business?

conq writes "With average weekly download as of Nov. 27 sales down 0.44% vs. the third quart, BusinessWeek speculates that Apple might in fact be holding back the music industry." From the article: "As has been true since the start, iPod owners mostly fill up their players from their own CD collections or swipe tunes from file-sharing sites. Now legal downloads may be losing their luster. According to Nielsen SoundScan, average weekly download sales as of Nov. 27 fell 0.44% vs. the third quarter. Says independent media analyst Richard Greenfield: 'We're not seeing the kind of dramatic growth we should given the surge in sales of iPods and other MP3 players.'"

What am I supposed to do?!!!

[Thud457]

My Ipod's full, I can't buy any more music!

Is the music industry run by monkeys?

[Anonymous Coward]

I am sure sales will pick up as soon as Apple starts charging "market price" for the music per the wishes of the music industry. :/

god, mom, you are such a LAME-O!

[Thud457]

What a crappy present! [whatacrappypresent.com]

"This even roots my computar, suckwit."

I think I know why

[Potent]

Could it be that music just sucks 0.44% more than the previous quarter? :)

My theory...

[LeonGeeste]

...is that some people buy iPods, but fill 'em up with pirated music instead of stuff they paid for at iTunes. I'm thinking about testing this theory soon.

The obvious solution...

[QuantumRiff]

Is to let the RIAA have their way with tiered pricing.. Obviously, if new songs aren't being bought at $.99, they will be purchased in droves at $2.99 for that hit new single...

In other news...

[shr3k]

In other news, the RIAA and major music industry conglomerates have announced new terms for customers purchasing and listening to their members' music.

"All people do with their CDs and iPods is listen to them. People think that they don't have to pay anything else beyond the initial purchase price. But what they don't understand is that they need to pay royalties every time they listen to them," said RIAA spokesman, Bob Degalhart. "Every song you play on your stereo or iPod should require some form of small micropayment to us for the right to even play that music. Everyone should realize that purchasing the music is only the first of many steps."

The RIAA and the industry plans to push legislation to require all stereo equipment, MP3 players, and hearing aids be fitted with special software that is capable of completing micropayment transaction per listen. Industry member Sony says that it has special software available for installation on home PCs for this purpose and plans to deploy it in the near future.

Re:0.44%!!!

[scolby]

Good job it wasn't 1% or we'd be back to the days of the Great Depression with music execs throwing themselves out of windows.

Methinks that might make a lot of people smile.

Correlation is not causation.

[Irvu]

The author is saying a) We predicted that we should be making X sales this week, and b) we are not. Therefore Apple is to blame, as are the people who keep choosing to not buy the overpriced "music".

Can you spot the logical flaw?

Last week I predicted the following:
a) I would immediately win a hundred bojillion dollars in the lottery.
b) The most beautiful women in the world would gather around me to sing my praises.

None of that has happened so far, and seeing as how b is dependent upon a (lets not kid ourselves, I'd have to buy plane tickets for all of them to fly here), we should focus on a. A requires me doing things like buying lottery tickets, and the lottery having that kind of money, neither of which is the case. Therefore there is only one inescapable explanation: It's all the lottery people's fault. They're 'holding me back'. They should have set the pot that high, given me a free ticket, and then changed the rules so that only I would win.

I love this game!

Re:Faulty reasoning from the start

[Yaa 101]

Nope, it gave place to creationism...

Re:Or..

[TheOtherAgentM]

They bought the first album. Then they went out and bought gold fronts and Dubs. They now cannot afford to purchase music online.

Re:You're kidding, right?

[nanio]

Songs for the iPod cannot be played on other hardware. It's a known fact, from the Newspaper.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Not in my household

[sandmaninator]

Who is modding up the rich dude whining???

Re:I think I know why

[TheRaven64]

I haven't listened to any new music this quarter, but judging by what I heard last quarter I'd have to say that no, it's not possible.

Re:The Songs are Gravy, not Blades

[earthbound kid]

Your metaphor is delightfully mixed. Who puts their razor blades in gravy?

Re:Incorrect

[Reaperducer]

Especially in a "decline" of less than half of one percent.

It's just another sign that Apple is going out of business. Has been since 1984.