Love, Hate, iPod

Without question the iPod and iTunes have changed the way music business is run today. I think we all know that. Some changes are for the good and some are for the worse; but thats what you have to expect that when something grabs a hold of an industry so strongly. I would usually come up with a clever metaphor involving grabbing, but no matter what I say it would just be a complete understatement. I mean overall it’s a truly amazing invention, I’m sure we all know that also. How something you put in your pocket can change the music industry so drastically is truly amazing. Steve Jobbs has hit the nail on the head and he keeps pounding. The iPod is a revolution and it shows no signs of slowing down. Now lets get past the obvious because there are enough people out there bowing down to there iPods right now. The fact of the matter is, the iPod and iTunes are one of the biggest reason the music industry is in the state it is now and as much as it is helping to save music, at the same time it is hindering it. Now some days that makes me hate my iPod, but today I happen to love it because it just saved me $15.

This $15 that I have in my wallet right now wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for my iPod’s trusty informant iTunes. I won’t name names, but I had heard some talk about a band that was supposed to be “so good”. With this stored in the back of my mind I happen to hear one of their singles on the radio. Pretty good I think.

Now Pause.

If this was 5 years ago and I was working off of impulse and energy drinks I would have made a quick stop at my local Best Buy picked the CD up and been thoroughly disappointed by the time I got home. The CD would eventually fumble it’s way under my front seat and be forgotten about forever.

Now back to reality.

I go home pumped about finding a new good band. I get onto iTunes to see what albums they have available and within a few minutes I felt like I got hit by one of those KA-POW flashes from those old batman episodes. The single is still good, but the other 11 tracks are just plain bad.  Although I’m disapointed with the band I’m glad I still have my $15. Now a nameless record label is out $15. Now $15 is a drop in the barrel to the labels, but it gets me thinking about the big picture. If you figure how many people have iPods these days it’s pretty safe to say that lots of people are saving $15 every day and finally labels are being shown what happens when you put out an inconsistent product. No longer can they rely on a single hit to sell an entire album. Not with iTunes around at least.

The iPods classy compadre is helping to bring consistency back to albums.  In my opinion an album just isn’t a compilation of songs, it’s one fluid piece of music split up throughout 60 minutes. Cheezy, but true. A few bad songs and the album can loose it’s flow and fade into mediocrity. Now back in the good old days you would fill an album with songs you thought were good. If you didn’t have enough good songs for a full length you would cut it short as an EP. Sounds like a pretty good plan, right? Well slowly things started to change. Somewhere in the hierarchy of the music business the love of music was surpassed by the love of money and priorities shifted. No longer was it important to turn out an album complete with all respectable songs. As long as people heard the hit single they would go out and buy the whole album because they had no way of knowing any better.

Sure, there were music reviews and opinions from other sources you could find, but you could never really trust them unless you the album for yourself. When you can preview every song for yourself you can make the call right there as to whether it’s worth the money or not. Of course not every song can be a number one hit but the standards have dropped way too low. Sure, there are still a lot of good albums being released but there are far too many artists out there living off of 1 or 2 song to sell a whole album. It’s the labels way of getting a few extra dollars in their pocket and an unfair way to mislead their audience. They have one group of artists putting out consistent product that sold great and gives the public confidence in their “brand”. Then there’s the other artists there to make a quick buck and then they’re gone, replaced by a new set of bands. Of course not all of this was intentional. A lot of times the labels sign band’s with the best intentions to have them put out a great product, but things don’t always work out; But there were still the artist they know are there just to be any easy money maker of a few catchy songs. If these labels would stick to artists that can turn out a consistent product this problem wouldn’t happen. Slowly things are moving back to how they should be. No longer can you make the single and whip up 10 more generic cookie cutter songs and expect for the album to sell. I love to see the labels putting out a consistent product because they aren’t as affected by this as much. For all you other labels, you need to stop complaining. Maybe you can’t make as much money by misleading your customers any more but how about making a little less by putting out an honest product. Let’s give that a shot. This could go on. You get the idea. Let’s end it here.Thanks for letting me keep my $15 iTunes. I owe you a drink.

• Currently Playing: The Movielife – Jamestown