Metallica, others spurn Apple

CNNmoney ^ | July 4, 2003 | Reuters

[Charles H. (The_r0nin)]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rock bands The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Metallica are refusing to make their music available as individual downloads on Apple Computer Inc's iTunes online music store, a representative for the bands, said Wednesday.

That move comes in response to Apple's decision to allow users to buy single tracks and is intended to protect the future of the long-playing album, the format that has dominated the music industry for decades, an agent for the bands said.

[Charles H. (The_r0nin)]

Sounds like a desperate attempt to save the buggy-whip. So the "artists" are upset that consumers will require EACH song to be good, as opposed to having to buy 10 tracks of shlock to get the 1 or 2 good songs on an album? Boohoo! Welcome to a more competative marketplace, fellas...

[Petronski]

What confounds me is how Metallica can be so awfully, horribly bad, so tragically annoying and grating? How does it feel to suck THAT much?

It is truly the ideal mood music for Hell.

[Charles H. (The_r0nin)]

Well, the US did use Metallica music to torture the prisoners down at Gitmo...

[zoen]

Apple OS still sucks. You cant even navigate the UI with the keyboard. How stupid is that. I still like Metalica. Ill have dl something from them now.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

What a joke. Both of these bands have made millions upon millions of dollars that they earned in spite of their mediocre quality at best, yet all they can do is whine and cry about the actions of the very people that have made them rich. They would do very go to go find a real cause, or at least one that is about something besides their money.

[Tacis]

Yet more proof of the superiority of Apple and its users!

[Petronski]

Well, the US did use Metallica music to torture the prisoners down at Gitmo...

Bwa ha ha ha. I don't remember hearing that one. What a perfect use for music so disturbing and comprehensively ugly.

Artists? [spit]

[The_Pickle]

"We can't let a distributor dictate the way our artists sell their music," Reiter said,

What you can do pinhead (Rieter) is ensure that your sales will continue to plummet be denigrating the very people that buy your schlock albums.

BTW A##-Clown the very fact that you still have the ability to deny a distributor access to your clients material belies the entire argument that the distributors are somehow "dictating" how music is sold.

[Paladin2]

How is that so many "artists" end up with the same number of songs (10 - 12 songs running say, 45 to 60 minutes) to be grouped into one collection (album)? Is there something in the creative process of music generation that always seems to result in the same quantity of output no matter the sonic, melodic, political, drug panel, instrumental, sexial orientation differences among the 1000's of artists? How does this compare with the bodies of work generated by musicians/composers in the preceeding few millenia?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[MAKOTHEDOG]

I think what is needed in the music business is a new way of doing things. The old way of selling cds is a great idea and still is, but there needs to be a new business model. I don't claim to know what that is but the person who can come up with a way to appease everybody is going to one wealthy person.

I think downloading music is illegal. I think downloading music is also here to stay. The sooner bands like metallica and record company bosses can understand that and come up with a NEW way of doing things the better off they and the consumer will be.

I think the old days of ripping off the consumer are over. I still can't understand why the price of an LP doubled when the cost of producing a CD was cheaper.

You have to applaud Apple for trying to come up with a new way of doing things.

[Glenn]

You cant even navigate the UI with the keyboard. How stupid is that.

You don't know what the hell you're talking about. Shut up while you are ahead, moron.

[nothingnew]

Red Hot Chili Peppers also refuses to make songs available for iTunes online music downloads.

Oh my G_d...let me tell you how upset I am................................................................................................................

FMCDH

[4mycountry]

>>>Bwa ha ha ha. I don't remember hearing that one.

Here.

[Focault's Pendulum]

"I Love Rock n' Roll!! Put another buck twenty five in the Jukebox, Baby!!!"

[nonliberal]

$elloutica had no problem with kids trading tapes in the early 80s. It is what helped them land a record deal and won them legions of fans. Now that they have money, they are against essentially the same thing.

Not to mention doing the "TRL TOUR" with Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park and Mudvayne.

[Skywalk]

You make an interesting point. The conflict between Prince's prolific nature as an artist and his label's wish to only release one album a year was the cause of his whole "symbol" name change and writing "Slave" on his cheek.

Essentially, Prince wanted to release all his finished songs on albums, even if that meant 3 twenty song albums in a year. The label refused with the reasoning that it would be more difficult to market each individual album and it would reduce sales.

So there ARE artists who can produce much more than the format, but they are always going to be limited by the record company. THAT, and I believe some bands and individual artists probably go into the process hoping to make 3-4 really good songs but they work on 10-12 because there's no way they could release a 3-4 track CD.

Ah for the good old days of Peter Gabriel's So and Prince's Purple Rain where every track on the album was good(or just about.)

[longtermmemmory]

I do not like apples system because it is too limiting and too conected to their ipod. I buy the track and that is that.

BTW I have seen some people railing against the sale of used cd's. Thre RIAA and their cronies do not care about downloading they care about distribution control. Actually if you buy a cd the copyright holder has been paid and then it becomes the domain of fair use. You are allowed to make subsequent copies since the copyright holder has been paid off. So you CAN rip a copy for your neighbor, it has been paid for. What is a neighbor?

[billbears]

Metallica was good up until and including And Justice For All. I guess now they want people to shell out 17 bucks for a CD to get one song because they've sold out like the rest of the music industry

[longtermmemmory]

apple is not doing anything new. They are just copying the Napster settlement offer. The music people signed on board with apple in order to find a legitimate strawman to point to in order to stop the bleeding.

The RIAA is fighting for its own life. Unless they prove themselves, then fewer companies will participate with the RIAA and the floodgates of independence will open.

[Salo]

Green Day songs are available at the itunes store. I got Good Riddance there.