How many songs do you think Apple has sold online?

[Chuckup]

Make a guess, find out here:
http://www.sitepunch.com/online_music.htm

[samsingh]

1. wow

over 10 million in 4 months.

great business model.

[Chuckup]

2. The thing is

the recording industry is crying about file sharing cutting into CD sales.

Although Apple is offering a legal solution, it is also cutting into CD sales.

We should always be careful when we hear about the hard times the music industry is having....they don't always tell the full story.

Offering single hit downloads will probably further cut into CD sales. Why buy the whole albumn for one or two songs?

[Wickerman]

3. So, doesn't that ultimately hurt the artist?

I'd never given this much thought, because I had never seen it framed this way before. But, if an artist releases a CD that has 12 cuts she receives gets rolayties for each song. If they only focus on 2 or 3 songs for download, then you've lost 2/3s of your potential, no day job sustaining revenue. Obviously, I am only concerned about small sellers, artists as opposed to product (go ahead, flame that).

I don't know, I am particularly sensitive to that today, the day after Zevon's death, thinking of how many of his songs I love, and how few of them were hits and how I wouldn’t have learned to love them without grabbing the full body of his work....

[Chuckup]

4. Allowing the industry to tell you what's

a hit?

That's what's being done isn't it? In the long run, the industry will push one or two songs on an albumn, make two videos, and go with that. The buyer will then determine if any of the other songs not being pushed by the undustry become hits....

The problem with offering single downloads IMO is that the ability for people to determine a hit will be lost for the most part. We will, at some point see an end to an abumn as we know it, and become a one or two song consumer.

[mvd]

5. Well, the price-cutting has been started..

so it would be no use to me unless they offer non-singles, too.