The Glade 4.0

LONDON (AP) — The Who's Pete Townshend on Monday branded Apple Inc.'s iTunes a "digital vampire" that profits from music without supporting the artists who create it.

Townshend said that faced with the Internet's demolition of established copyright protections, iTunes should offer some of the services to artists that record labels and music publishers used to provide. These include employing talents scouts, giving space to allow bands to stream their music and paying smaller artists directly rather than through a third party aggregator.

The guitarist was delivering the first John Peel Lecture, named in honor of the influential British radio broadcaster who died in 2004.

Townshend asked if there was any reason iTunes "can't provide some aspect of these services to the artists whose work it bleeds like a digital vampire" to make money.

ITunes declined to respond to Townshend's comments.

Apple's service is the market leader among legal download services, accounting for about three-quarters of music downloads.

Townshend said consumers, as well as the industry, needed to change their attitude to digital music.

"It would be better if music lovers treated music like food, and paid for every helping, rather than only when it suited them," he said.

"Why can't music lovers just pay for music rather than steal it?" he said.

I think he's switched topics by the latter paragraph, no longer referring to iTunes but rather talking about consumers' attitudes toward paying for music when they want and pirating when they don't. Poorly-written article is poorly written.

And going back to his iTunes "points," I rather don't understand what he's carping about. He says that iTunes should offer services to artists that record labels and music publishers used to provide. But record labels and music publishers still exist, and they still serve the same purposes they've always served. iTunes is just a distribution outlet, like brick and mortar stores were before it. I can't see where you'd ask Walmart or Target to "employ talent scouts, give space to allow bands to stream their music, or pay smaller artists directly rather than through a third party aggregator."

Yet, record labels still exist. It appears as though Apple's complete distribution is geared toward people that the record labels' talent scouts are missing.

That's quite an accusation from the rock deity. The BBC says his main beef is the New Music Industry's lack of "support" for new acts, which apparently need to be nurtured and were treated like bouncy grinning children in the old days: "Is there really any good reason why, just because iTunes exists in the wild west internet land of Facebook and Twitter, it can't provide some aspect of these services to the artists whose work it bleeds like a digital vampire, like a digital Northern Rock, for its enormous commission?"

Digital vampire! Townshend says Apple should hire a fulltime staff to coach and advise young artists before taking a cut of their earnings. Which sounds nice, yes, but is a total pipe dream. And moreover, doesn't it really defeat the purpose of the 21st century music industry's dropped-bottom floor? Profits have collapsed, but so has the front door—"making it" is easier thanks to online distribution. Sociopath rap phenom Tyler, The Creator was just a kid from California before his debut release hit #3 on iTunes' top albums. Anecdotal, sure, but the notion that iTunes (or any other MP3 store, for that matter) is somehow more exploitative than the record industry old guard is silly. The kiddos can take care of themselves quite fine—and if they can't, being able to sell their music through one of the few viable digital outlets sure isn't the problem.