iTunes LP shuts out indie labels and I told you so

Let me begin by making it clear that I am NOT one of those people who don’t like to say “I told you so.” Back in August, I wrote about the new digital sales formats that both Apple and major record labels are introducing in order to boost album sales.

In Apple’s Project Cocktail vs. CMX: Either way indie artists lose, I wrote:

One thing that most of the news articles about these new formats seem to overlook is how they will impact recording artists. The digital music format was not developed by the record industry. The MP3 was something that was forced upon them. In addition, the technology that is used to produce an MP3 is not proprietary to the recording industry.

This means that independent recording artists and small record labels can easily produce their own product and distribute it for sale through online stores. This will not be the case with Apple’s Cocktail and CMX. These formats will be owned by the record industry and artists who wish to use them to promote their albums will undoubtedly have to make deals with the major labels.

If these formats end up being something that consumers like (and that’s probably not likely), it will be a step back for independent recording artists and small labels. They will almost certainly be locked out of the game by the big boys.

Yesterday, John Herman wrote an article for tech and gadget blog Gizmodo that reveals Apple is in fact shutting indie artists out of the iTunes LP sales format:

Apple to Indie Labels: iTunes LP Is Out of Your League

With a higher price than regular albums, no lossless audio and virtually no device support, iTunes LP seems like a hard sell. Turns out, it might be lame for musicians too—at least, the ones without platinum records.

I spoke with Brian McKinney, who runs Chocolate Lab Records, a smallish label out of Chicago. As someone who actually makes records, he saw potential in iTunes LP, and after seeing how incredibly simple the actual LP files are, started looking into making some himself. It didn’t go so well:

I contacted the digital distribution manager at my label’s distributor. He had a conference call with an iTunes rep and asked how we go about putting an LP together. He was told that LPs aren’t being offered to indies and that there are only about 12 LPs being offered right now. They also said that iTunes charges a $10,000 production fee for them as well. So that pretty much edges out the indie market completely.

Continue reading…

So, there you have it. I am still surprised that this wasn’t reported on much earlier. I know that my earlier blog post got quit a lot of traffic when it was published back in August. I was certain that someone who works with independent artists would raise this issue.

I didn’t take a genius to figure this one out. Oh, and global warming is real, too.