With a cough of dust and a slithering of centipedes, The Who’s Peter Townshend has once more fallen out of his coffin to roam the world. This time, rock and roll’s elder statesmummy has emerged from his tomb with a purpose: to call Apple and iTunes a “digital vampire” that “bleeds artists.”
Townshend’s argument is this. Because Apple makes 30% of every iTunes track sold, it’s sucking artists dry. Unlike the music publishers, though, iTunes doesn’t give anything back, such as “editorial guidance and creative nurtur[ing].”
“Is there really any good reason why, just because iTunes exists in the wild west internet land of Facebook and Twitter, it can’t provide some aspect of these services to the artists whose work it bleeds like a digital vampire, like a digital Northern Rock, for its enormous commission?” Townshend asked.
Well, okay, let’s do the math here. In 2010, Apple earned thirty cents for every ninety nine cent track. The labels, on the other hand, earned 53 cents per ninety nine cent track. The average artist? Makes just nine cents per track.
Look, Townshend. First of all, “creative nurturing” isn’t a distributor’s business, it’s a label’s. Saying otherwise is absurd. It’s like saying Barnes & Noble should be held responsible for setting up writer’s colonies. A distributor’s job is to sell; a publisher’s job, on the other hand, is to make sure they secure the best talent by investing in up-and-coming artists and helping them generate the best content available.
Second, the music industry is making almost twice what Apple is making on every iTunes track. Apple’s existing agreement with the music industry recognizes that labels put a lot of work into nurturing and growing talent.
You want to complain about something? How about complaining about the fact that less than ten percent of the proceeds of each track sold on iTunes go to the artist who actually wrote the damn thing? But like most popular rock artists, Townshend has crawled into bed with the labels. He’s one of them now, and so for all his talk about artists being sucked dry by the iTunes nosferatu, his real problem is that he thinks the music labels should be getting a bigger bellyfull of blood.
