By Jo Best, 20 September 2004 17:05
NEWS Independent musicians are losing patience with all-conquering download shop iTunes after being made to wait to join its download list.
When iTunes launched, the Association of Independent Musicians (AIM) - which covers a large number of independent record labels - protested its members had been neglected. Months later, some labels have signed to iTunes but not seen their catalogue appear, some have started talks and seen no contracts and others have seen no interest from Apple full stop.
Indie labels Domino and Ninja Tunes did sign a licence with Apple but haven't heard from the song shop since while others haven't even had a sniff of any licensing paperwork from Cupertino, despite repeated overtures from the record label.
Pete Quicke, MD of Ninja Tune, said that the label's catalogue had been with Apple for nearly a year and a European deal was signed month ago - but none of its downloads are available from the UK site.
Jeremy Lascelles, CEO of Chrysalis Music Division, said he was confused by Apple's approach to licensing.
"By their own admission, they are seriously under-resourced in terms of the relatively simple task of finalising the paperwork (all the terms of which are already agreed)... but they don't appear to be willing to create those resources," he said in a statement.
While Apple and the independents try to resolve their differences, indie music lovers are left without some best-selling bands' downloads.
Bright young things and this year's Mercury Prize winners Franz Ferdinand, as well as the UK's current number one Eric Prydz, can't be downloaded from the service because of their indie leanings. Other old favourites including Billy Bragg, Elvis Costello and T-Rex have yet to turn up on iTunes either.
One indie music fan told silicon.com he found Apple's approach "slovenly" and said it "leaves bands on the fringes of the mainstream to fester in limited-edition seven-inch release obscurity. While some purists happily welcome this, not all of us have enough hours in the week to drop by [indie record shop] Rough Trade to get our latest fix.
"Apple need to realise that not only are they distorting the music market through their actions, they are denying themselves a big revenue earner."
Apple did not respond to requests for comment.
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1. Phil Blackburn
The record labels' complaints would be more convincing if it was just iTunes that was missing non-mainstream British bands - they are mostly not on OD2 either (who provide downloads through Coke, Virgin, Wannado, Tiscali, etc).
There actually seems to be a wider range of British bands available on US sites, including iTunes, than on European sites. It seems much more likely to me that the European record labels are simply trying to cling on to old ways of doing things for as long as possible.