Pete Townshend: iTunes Is A 'Digital Vampire'

LONDON -- The Who's Pete Townshend on Monday branded Apple Inc.'s iTunes a "digital vampire" that profits from music without supporting the artists who create it.

Townshend said that faced with the Internet's demolition of established copyright protections, iTunes should offer some of the services to artists that record labels and music publishers used to provide. These include employing talents scouts, giving space to allow bands to stream their music and paying smaller artists directly rather than through a third party aggregator.

The guitarist was delivering the first John Peel Lecture, named in honor of the influential British radio broadcaster who died in 2004.

Townshend asked if there was any reason iTunes "can't provide some aspect of these services to the artists whose work it bleeds like a digital vampire" to make money.

ITunes declined to respond to Townshend's comments.

Apple's service is the market leader among legal download services, accounting for about three-quarters of music downloads.

Townshend said consumers, as well as the industry, needed to change their attitude to digital music.

"It would be better if music lovers treated music like food, and paid for every helping, rather than only when it suited them," he said.

"Why can't music lovers just pay for music rather than steal it?" he said.

Comments

[eurisko67]

04:23 PM on 11/02/2011

"Digital Vampires".

This coming from a paedophile.

[tolseq]

04:01 PM on 11/02/2011

what Apple did to the quality and experience of music was unforgivable. There is a reason there is a bite out of the apple you know.

[ScottNY]

03:38 PM on 11/02/2011

iTunes is a store. Do artists request this from Best Buy, Target, the know defunct Tower Records?

Sadly he's out of touch. If anything if not for iTunes pirating of music was spiraling out of control. I know of many people who hadn't purchased a CD in ages and were instead downloading music freely who now buy music via iTunes and Amazon.

[cphill]

03:17 PM on 11/02/2011

You have enough money, Pete. Shut up.

[RageVsMachine]

02:38 PM on 11/02/2011

music was meant to be free and shared, pete.

[Comeplayinmyreality]

02:19 PM on 11/02/2011

iTunes is an Apple product, so thats your answer right there.

[RageVsMachine]

02:38 PM on 11/02/2011

anything constructive to add?

[Comeplayinmyreality]

02:43 PM on 11/02/2011

not today, but thanks for reading. LOL

[JamesAndre]

01:54 PM on 11/02/2011

Honestly, it's a bit like Bank of America. 'Artificial' income streams have been created to make 'extra' profits from a performance, and now that those streams are drying up, some people think they still have a right to make the same money.

How is it reasonable for a performer to get paid for thousands of performances a day?

[Tom Weidermeijer]

12:52 PM on 11/02/2011

Pete... PETE... P-E-T-E!!! What? Are you deaf?

You are receiving more revenue from your songs selling on iTunes than you have in a long time.

Good musicians... or I should say popular musicians still make good money despite Apple. You, my friend, haven't had a good album since the early 80s.

Woah! Look at that! A group of kids! Hot little kids!

[NHBill]

04:26 PM on 11/02/2011

Folks are downloading just Pinball Wizard and not the entire album.

[lotusaod]

05:23 PM on 11/02/2011

Yeah, bands are p-o'ed that no one has to buy their "fluff" songs they produce just to fill an album, they only download the ones they like

[French Toast]

11:54 AM on 11/02/2011

Much as I generally agree with the basis of Mr. Townshend's argument, I am of the belief that he has enough clout and money to try to provide an alternative. Apple's hold on power is extremely tenuous and subject to change.

[NHBill]

04:27 PM on 11/02/2011

Tenuous?
How so?

[llibsetag]

01:02 AM on 11/02/2011

Isn't that the guy who writes all those theme songs for the CSI TV shows?

[cgnick]

11:33 PM on 11/01/2011

Pete you just got put on my Metalica list. Never put profit over art.

[NerdyStudent]

09:56 PM on 11/01/2011

It's much cheaper to actually get CDs through your local public library, burn them, and import the songs into your device (my Zune--oh yeah, I'm cool like that). Yeah, it takes time--but then again, I'm not part of the "NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW" generation.

[storeysound]

01:24 PM on 11/02/2011

Sure it's cheaper, but you're taking money out of the pocket of the musician whose work you're stealing. It doesn't make a huge difference for mega-acts, but if you're doing that with smaller indie artists you can really hurt them financially. Each disc sold or download paid for helps them produce their next project, makes them more visible in the industry, and perhaps can propel them to a better, longer contract. If you like them, BUY their music. They need all the help they can get.

[NHBill]

04:28 PM on 11/02/2011

It's just as "illegal" as downloading it from Pirate Bay.

[Rational Thought Plz]

08:59 PM on 11/01/2011

Plays My Generation for Pete.. Remember this one?

[JohnTheMac]

08:49 PM on 11/01/2011

So, are we supposed to mail 50 cents to Pete if we watched the video at the bottom of the article, "Pinball Wizard"?

[JohnTheMac]

08:40 PM on 11/01/2011

"Townshend asked if there was any reason iTunes "can't provide some aspect of these services to the artists whose work it bleeds like a digital vampire" to make money."

I wonder what Walmart, the #2 music retailer does to serve artists?
And why aren't the record labels doing the same services they always did? They're making money, and more importantly, THEY'RE the ones you signed a contract with!

[storeysound]

01:40 PM on 11/02/2011

Many artists whose work is available on iTunes are not "signed", so there is no contract. These are the ones that Townshend is largely talking about.

Walmart serves the signed artists by PAYING for the music they sell. Some of that money does get to the artist, though as always the record companies do siphon off the lion's share. But a portion of the record company's share goes to tour support, promotion, etc. With iTunes, the income from a piece of work gets split yet another way, reducing the portion that goes to the artist and the portion that goes to the record company which reduces the amount available for artist support. And illegal downloading erases all income for anybody. For smaller acts, both signed and unsigned, this can have serious repercussions (although those are marginally offset by wider listenership and awareness of the artist's work). If a newly signed artist doesn't show good sales numbers, he can be dropped, and once dropped from a label getting signed to another is next to impossible - you're "damaged goods".

[NHBill]

04:35 PM on 11/02/2011

CDs at Walmart are sold on consignment.
Unsold units are returned and credited.
So it's basically the same as Walmart who marks up their CDs by about 30% the same take that Apple gets.
With iTunes independent artists with recordings can list their work directly with iTunes cutting out the label and earning All the wholesale revenue.
Revenue they can use to support their tours.
The digital future is going to be very hard on middlemen such as TV Networks, Book Publishers and Record Labels.