Billy Corgan: iTunes Kills Music

[Owain Taggart]

Albums suck nowadays anyway. How many people actually listen to a CD from beginning to end anymore?

That is the only way I listen to music.

Albums don't suck any more today than they did in the 90s, 80s, 70s, or whenever. It's just a matter of finding the right albums to listen to.

Agreed. Some may suck, but saying that as a general qualifier is just not being fair to albums in general. It's the only way I buy music as well, either by physical CD or digital download, but there's some really good stuff out there. You just have to know where to look for the most part.

I tend to view the media as a mainstream focus. Sites will review what's hot, and they'll hardly scratch the surface, which can often be stuff that just sells based on the names alone. It's up to the consumer to find the good stuff by digging deeper. Often what gets attention is the marketing machine put behind an album or band, and those that don't have that kind of marketing power fall by the wayside. I've seen some brilliant bands hardly get the attention they've deserved while some other similar band shot up in popularity and recognition while in my opinion not being that great. So, in my opinion, it's more about the marketing behind a band rather than the musicianship of a band that will make or break it, and there are bands out there that will blow away those that are more popular. It's the nature of the game.

 

[Saga]

How many people actually listen to a CD from beginning to end anymore?

i do.

 

[Miss Chicken]

When I was young and music still came in vinyl I used to hear a song on Countdown (Aussie rock show) or on the radio and if I liked it I would buy it as a single 45. Occasionally, if I really like a band, I would buy an LP. I don't think this is all that different from how people buy off iTunes now. I most buy single songs on iTunes but once in a while I will buy an entire album.

 

[tomalak301]

I think Radio is doing more harm to music than iTunes. Radio plays the same crap over and over and none of these other bands have a chance. The internet (And to a small extent) iTunes gives them that chance, so I don't get the whole iTunes hate a lot of artists like this guy and AC/DC have.

As for Albums vs. Singles, I try to buy albums as much as I can, even though I always have my iPod on shuffle so I get variety in my music choices.

 

[{ Emilia }]

How many people actually listen to a CD from beginning to end anymore?

i do.

Same here.

I rarely (if ever) pick just one song. Usually it's the whole album.

 

[Kemaiku]

I always use the 'buy album' button on iTunes, I rarely if ever just buy one or two tracks.

 

[Random_Spock]

I use iTunes some but really these two sources are better: Pandora, which has a great system for discovering a massive range of music in obscure genres (I use it to find Phillip Glass style minimalism and anything like Steve Reich or Robert Rich, which I call "space music"); and YouTube, which is a great place to hear and see a massive range of full-length classical performances for free (which is a great way to improve my own playing). There's simply no way a brick and mortar store could offer either.

If iTunes is killing off rock music, I couldn't care less. I have no interest in that genre. I didn't even know who the fuck Billy Corgan was, till I read the story.

I use itunes as well. Love it for the most part. As for Pandora, I disagree with you on that. Absolutely hate it . Whenever a commercial comes on it, it plays way too loud, and as for introducing me to new music... it's all fine and good, but that's not really what I want to listen to. I like listening to old favorites as well. Heck it only gave me one song out of the ones that I really wanted to listen to, the rest were just meh -_-.

As for Billy Corgan, . Got some of his stuff back from when he was with the Smashing Pumpkins on my ipod . Only paid $6 for 2-cd set I got from a local used book store/movie store/music store. Uploaded it and went from there.

Itunes hasn't killed music whatsoever. It's spread music to others. It's not perfect by any means, but it's still pretty good .

 

[Brikar99]

As for Pandora, I disagree with you on that. Absolutely hate it . Whenever a commercial comes on it, it plays way too loud, and as for introducing me to new music... it's all fine and good, but that's not really what I want to listen to. I like listening to old favorites as well. Heck it only gave me one song out of the ones that I really wanted to listen to, the rest were just meh -_-.

Spotify might be more up your alley, then, since you can choose specific tracks and albums to listen to rather than just the 'radio' aspect of Pandora.

 

[the G-man]

Linky

So is he an obsolete old crow who resists change? Or what?

I vote for "greedy bitch." Some of these rocks stars (Bon Jovi's another one) still have the entitlement mentality that people should be forced to buy an entire album at $15.00 just to get that one decent song.

 

[The Mighty Monkey of Mim]

Wat article are some of you reading? I don't see anything about sales or money at all, there. He's talking about cultural attitudes.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

"Despite all my rage...."

I have been buying a lot of my music on faith. If I like one or two songs on an album, I will usually buy the whole album with the hope that I will like all of the other songs too. I am rarely disappointed.

I've been screwed on many albums that suck. I find many groups only seem capable of that one great song.

I've been enjoying Rhapsody as a way of getting to try out many different albums from a variety of sources for basically the cost of an album a month.

 

[Miss Chicken]

There was just as much peer pressure before Facebook, it was just expressed in different way.

Places like iTunes and eMusic makes music more assessable. I found new groups that I would never had heard of otherwise when I was still a member of eMusic.

 

[the G-man]

Wat article are some of you reading? I don't see anything about sales or money at all, there. He's talking about cultural attitudes.

Sure, that's what he's claiming it's about...

The simple fact of the matter is that people who want to buy an album will still buy the album. So his claims that iTunes is stopping people like him from making an album is b.s. As noted on this very thread if any of us like the artist enough we will buy the album.

But until iTunes, there had been approximately two decades (or much more) where, if you wanted a particular song you either had to hope someone you knew had a copy you could dub (most likely an analog cassette copy) or you had to buy an entire album because only a tiny percentage of songs made it to singles. The record companies, and the artists, were basically forcing us to pay for nine songs of filler to get one or two songs we wanted.

It was arrogance and greed. And Corgan may gussy it up with talk about cultural attitudes and whatever but it all boils down to the fact that people no longer have to buy music they don't want from him in order to get the music they do want.

 

[the G-man]

Wat article are some of you reading? I don't see anything about sales or money at all, there. He's talking about cultural attitudes.

Sure, that's what he's claiming it's about...

The simple fact of the matter is that people who want to buy an album will still buy the album. So his claims that iTunes is stopping people like him from making an album is b.s. As noted on this very thread if any of us like the artist enough we will buy the album.

But until iTunes, there had been approximately two decades (or longer) where, if you wanted a particular song you either had to hope someone you knew had a copy you could dub (most likely an analog cassette copy) or you had to buy an entire album because only a tiny percentage of songs made it to singles. The record companies, and the artists, were basically forcing us to pay for nine songs of filler to get one or two songs we wanted.

It was arrogance and greed. And Corgan may gussy it up with talk about peer pressure and whatever but it all boils down to the fact that people no longer have to buy music they don't want from him in order to get the music they do want.

 

[Kail]

I like iTunes because I can cherry pick and buy only the songs I want off of albums.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Wat article are some of you reading? I don't see anything about sales or money at all, there. He's talking about cultural attitudes.

I know - it's like people have some kind of knee-jerk response programmed for certain topics, then just guess from the topic title.

 

[Pingfah]

I like iTunes because I can cherry pick and buy only the songs I want off of albums.

Personally, I am a dedicated album listener. If a band can't get it together to write a whole album of songs I like (or at least mostly like), then I can't be bothered with them, there are plenty of bands that can. I hate playlists, and randomising songs. I like a good, flowing, cohesive album presented as a body of work to be digested whole.

But then again, I still buy my albums on vinyl, so my attitudes are probably somewhat outdated.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I just finished downloading his new album.

I hate itunes because the format doesn't play on my dvd player.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Wat article are some of you reading? I don't see anything about sales or money at all, there. He's talking about cultural attitudes.

Yeah, I realized that (eventually.) I think it's just the way the topic was spun that put people down a certain path.

It sounded like his real gripe was that music doesn't have the political impact it used to. When "anti-establishment" bands like RATM have their music available on iTunes--a service run by the giant Apple, Inc.--it blunts the sincerity and impact of their message. How he goes from that to saying people purposely shy away from "edgy" music for fear of public ridicule is unclear, though. I only ever see people get lambasted for listening to pop music and the like, not alternative bands most people have never heard of.

Then he mentioned how someday all artists will sell their music directly without a middleman like iTunes. That is a nice thought for the bands themselves--no having to go through a label that takes a big cut--but it's a major pain in the ass for consumers. Who wants to have to go to a different website for every single band? It's nice to have a common platform, a one-stop shop for your music purchases, be it iTunes, Amazon, or something else.

Maybe he's trying to find an explanation for why his sales are down. The answer to that is simple: competition. There is just a lot more music out there now than there was 10 years ago, thanks to how low the barriers to entry are these days. Pretty much anybody with a computer and some cheap equipment can become a musician or a DJ or whatever they like, and get it out there on the open market for very little money.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Then he mentioned how someday all artists will sell their music directly without a middleman like iTunes. That is a nice thought for the bands themselves--no having to go through a label that takes a big cut--but it's a major pain in the ass for consumers. Who wants to have to go to a different website for every single band? It's nice to have a common platform, a one-stop shop for your music purchases, be it iTunes, Amazon, or something else.

He may have a point if people can't even be bothered to go to a differnet website to get music.

There's nothing stopping a band today from putting together a website or using another one to sell their music. They use Apple and Amazon because it gurarantees a certain amount of exposure just like Billy himself does. In fact, I'm not so sure this rant isn't just a way to promote his new album. It's not like Billy and the Pumpkins have been above using MTV and iTunes to sell their wares.