Apparently iTunes sells a lot of singles but not many albums, the same goes for Amazon and the other online retailers. The big four major record companies are now coming up with an idea to change all that.
The idea is that if you donwnload an album you should also get some additional artwork, as an incentive. Apple is apparently going to do something similar, and as usual it's going to be iTunes VS everyone else to see which one people will prefer (wanna bet?).
But all this seems to be still missing the point for me. The thing I just don't
get is:
Compact Disc from record store (also available online for home delivery); it comes in a nice plastic case, there is a printed booklet, IT SOUNDS AS IT SHOULD, and it costs £8.99; from this CD you can create as many copes as you like – it is legal for personal use – and create MP3s, AAC, OGG or any format you want. When a new format comes out you go back to the source and convert it again.
iTunes download; let's say it comes with a pdf of the artwork, let's say it is DRM free, it is not the real thing but a data-compressed version of the real thing, it might sound remarkably good for something that has lost 90% of its data, but it is not as good as a CD; it will get lost as soon as your hard drive fails, your laptop is stolen or you delete it by accident; it can't be converted to another format without a significant loss of quality, in fact I have still to find someone who has been able to play back legal downloads older than three years; and all this for a price which is often HIGHER than the equivalent CD (certainly if you buy one track at a time, but often even with 'album' purchases).
So please someone tell me, why should anyone buy from iTunes? My answer is that the only people that buy downloads is the people that don't care too much for their music.
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