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by James Robertson.
Original Post: Reality sets in
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Wired reports that some of the digital holdouts have glommed onto reality:
Bob Seger turned the page, and Metallica finally found justice for online fans. Now, only a few remaining big-name musical acts refuse to make their songs available on Apple Computer's popular iTunes Music Store.
Of course, some artists are still waiting - perhaps for Godot:
Analysts say the online holdouts -- including the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Garth Brooks, Radiohead and Kid Rock -- probably can't avoid iTunes forever as fans flock to the internet to buy music.
And some are still clearly delusional:
But the artists argue online distribution leaves them with too small a profit. And, they say, iTunes wrecks the artistic integrity of an album by allowing songs to be purchased by the track for 99 cents. Some bands, such as AC/DC have released albums on other, more flexible sites, but not iTunes.
Apple gives most of that money back to the labels - last I checked, it was something like 80 cents. Meaning, if the artists have a beef, it's not with iTunes, it's with the same people who've been screwing them over for years. As for the "artistic integrtity" argument - get over yourselves. Most of the time, I want to listen to a handful of tracks from an album (sometimes only one). If you want to sell me an entire album of music, then make it worth listening to - don't cry me a river over supposed "artistic integrity".