Now that the John, Paul, George and Ringo have joined the iTunes revolution, what about the rest of the iTunes holdouts? Believe it or not there are still many famous bands and solo acts that refuse to put their music on Apple’s iTunes store. Most believe Apple’s policy of refusing to sell whole albums instead of single song downloads is the problem, while others object to how Apple pays artists.
The first three examples Price lists (AC/DC, Garth Brooks and Bob Seger) all have declined to sell their albums on iTunes for this very reason.
Singles have been around since for ages, and are a great way for an artist to introduce their work to a larger audience. Singles have a purpose, but many artists don’t see the second step — album sales — materialize in a digital world. In the days of physical media, to get a copy of the single playing on the radio, it meant buying the entire album — on LP, cassette, 8-track or CD. That meant the not-so-great tracks got to ride on the coat tails of the successful single or two on the album. With digital singles, every track has to stand on its own merits.
Buying single tracks was one of the big points Apple made when it introduced the iTunes Music Store in 2003.1 While good for consumers, selling just singles means less income for labels and artists. Which is the point of all businesses — including music.
Maybe I’m just old-school, but I really don’t like having just one or two tracks from an album. For that matter, I can barely stand shuffling music most of the time.2 I’m a listen-to-the-whole-album kinda guy. Always have been.