Originally Posted by Babaluma ➡️

would be even better if "sound check" was on by default in itunes, or if apple would support FLAC, or if apple would even sell lossless files in the itunes store, blah blah blah.

Originally Posted by FabienTDR ➡️

IMHO, this is over-enthusiastic. When Katz says:

"iTunes Radio will quickly discover that Radio sounds more consistent than their playlists, that they don’t have to turn their volume controls up and down when listening to Radio"

No, the customer will discover that local playback sounds much "better". Louder is still "better" from the perspective of the average music customer and he will intuitively move to another player. I bet Apple will face an incredible an incredible shit-storm if they'd force this thing.

10$ that Apple will stop this thing after 3 month of evaluation!

Also, the world doesn't belong to apple. The whole independent music industry (not just indie rock ) already organized themselves with their own platforms such as Juno, Beatport, Boomkat and most of all: Most half way modern labels are having great success running their own infrastructure/shop/streaming service without third party cuts. Apple has relevant market power weight in the US mainstream (or what's left of it), but that's it. It's totally different outside the US.

Originally Posted by FabienTDR ➡️

IMHO, this is over-enthusiastic. When Katz says:

"iTunes Radio will quickly discover that Radio sounds more consistent than their playlists, that they don’t have to turn their volume controls up and down when listening to Radio"

No, the customer will discover that local playback sounds much "better". Louder is still "better" from the perspective of the average music customer and he will intuitively move to another player. I bet Apple will face an incredible shit-storm if they'd force this thing.

10$ that apple hits the breaks 3 month of evaluation!

Also, the world doesn't belong to apple. The whole independent music industry players (not just indie rock ) already organized themselves with their own platforms such as Juno, Beatport, Boomkat and most of all: Most half way modern labels are having great success running their own infrastructure/shop/streaming service without third party cuts. Apple has relevant market power weight in the US mainstream (or what's left of it), but that's it. It's totally different outside the US.

Originally Posted by Theknob ➡️

Why do we care what Bob Katz says?

Originally Posted by FabienTDR ➡️

the world doesn't belong to apple.

Originally Posted by FabienTDR ➡️

...the world doesn't belong to apple.

Originally Posted by lobsterinn ➡️

Seriously though, even if Apple isn't the only major player, they are a major player and if other services follow suit we will be on the road back to dynamic content in music.

Originally Posted by work2do ➡️

The loudness wars have been over....we lost.

Like internet file sharing there is no way to put this back in the bag.

Originally Posted by FabienTDR ➡️

Most half way modern labels are having great success running their own infrastructure/shop/streaming service without third party cuts.

Originally Posted by work2do ➡️

The loudness wars have been over....we lost.

Like internet file sharing there is no way to put this back in the bag.

Originally Posted by lobsterinn ➡️

Just think of all the over-squashed records from the last 15 years which could be remastered to be listenable.

Originally Posted by Owen Gillett ➡️

Precisely.
Why so many artists are willing to tow the iTunes line, with low resolution audio and what other incentive other than supposed user-friendly accessibility??

Having some audio files on a server and a system to sell them/stream them/give them away/whatever, is really not rocket surgery and is theoretically a one-off investment. So why not??

I think it is the absence of thought and laziness of so many "artists"... And the prestige of being on iTunes...?Please...

Why any businessperson (anyone who sells their music is a businessperson whether they realise it or not) wouldn't want to cut out a parasitic middle"man" is beyond me.

Having said all that, I am happy about the announcement Bob made. Let's hope it IS part of the path to better sounding music in the future.

Owen

PS is there something massively relevant that I am missing? What is the positive side of an artist using iTunes that can't be self provided?

Originally Posted by Yannick ➡️

So you are finally admitting that all these sqaushed masters were in fact a conspiracy of a secret mastering engineer society, to make sure there would be enough remastering jobs in the third millennium ?

Originally Posted by Gravit Dinchy ➡️

The problem is the artists. They all want to be loudest. Always have, always will.
It's our job to facilitate that need.