Apple: Necessary, or a nuisance?

In response to the article "NBC executive slams Apple for 'killing music industry'", I would personally like to give Mathew Ingram a pat on the back for his position regarding NBC executive positions on Apple music purchases. I agree with Ingram when he says that Apple rescued the music industry from irrelevance, as the days of Napster and free downloads did rob a lot of money from them. Charging for songs online is a great way to satisfy peoples' need for convenience, as well as the ability to own one song by an artist instead of a whole album, which is potentially making the industry more money.


If a person likes just one song by an artist, they will either buy the whole album, or not. Having songs for individual sale allows the people who would not have purchased the album for the one song to have that one song, and pay specifically for it.


It is also true when Ingram points out that the industry has made far more from iTunes than it would have been able to make by itself in the online world. A partner as popular as iTunes is an excellent resource. According to answerbag.com, ipod has sold over 100 million ipods, meaning close to 100 million people must have ipods. If those 100 million people all purchase one song from iTunes, the music industry is going to get a very large amount of money.


Ingram's point comparing iTunes' refusal to pay a portion of their hardware sales to the network to TV manufacturers was absolutely brilliant. It is absolutely true that TV has sold a ton of hardware to people "eager to watch major network content" and if the industry wants a portion of hardware sales from iTunes, in the name of fairness, they would have to do the same for TV manufacturers.

In my opinion, NBC's decision to leave iTunes was not smart, and will potentially be devestating for the company. With recent developments like iTunes on cellphones as well as computers, iTUnes is even more accessible than it used to be, and its popularity is only growing.