Open Letter to Apple.

RaymondLin

axisus

Dear Apple, I preferred you when you were the cutest computer company in the world losing money hand over fist. Back then you looked far to the horizon and strived to get their first and in the most enjoyable way. Now you can't see further than the corporate ass that you have had your head stuffed up for years.

musteatbrain

I wrote a long post highlighting my disdain for this sort of thread. I have revised it to avoid offending people. It now reads:

Meh.

Flink_Poyd

ThePrettyDamned

Same for anything. One of my friends writes children's books, but doesn't really get anything beyond a funded hobby.

I'm quite happy for my music to just be a hobby, but that's largely because I gave up on it at the age of about 16 when every teacher I had told me that there were way better ways of earning a living. I do often wish they hadn't said all that, I'd probably be happier.

Cabicular

It has always been thus
Look at the Fringe
Hotels and bars make a fortune. The artists that provide the content barely scrape by
Andy Warhol? I'll see you and raise you a Banksy.
There are winners and losers. Always more of the latter and less of the former
When books first came out the people that owned the printing presses made the money and occasionally you would get a runaway success
There's literally nothing to gain by moaning about it ... You're howling at the moon.
Your either lucky enough to break and good enough to capitalise or you aren't
Best to remember why you do it in the first place
If you still enjoy it and find it creatively satisfying then you have made it. If you hate it and always worry you aren't going to make a living then you are lost.

skankdelvar

Dear so-called Apple

It's all so unfair. I wrote this letter to tell you I hate you and so all my friends will see that I'm totally right on and then some woman might want to go out with me for a coffee.

Regards

Barry 'The Voice Of Truth' Badger

Cleethorpes

NE Lincs

bingefeller

Gassage said:

This from a  writer. He is spot on.

There is only one question: Where is the music gone?

https://www.apple.com/uk/music/

Iamnobody

skankdelvar;761794" said:

Dear so-called Apple

It's all so unfair. I wrote this letter to tell you I hate you and so all my friends will see that I'm totally right on and then some woman might want to go out with me for a coffee.

Regards

Barry 'The Voice Of Truth' BadgerCleethorpesNE Lincs

Agreed - open letters are an attention seeking piece of wank.

Stevepage

skankdelvar;761794" said:

Dear so-called Apple

It's all so unfair. I wrote this letter to tell you I hate you and so all my friends will see that I'm totally right on and then some woman might want to go out with me for a coffee.

Regards

Barry 'The Voice Of Truth' BadgerCleethorpesNE Lincs

I read this whole thing with Rik Mayall's voice in my head

bingefeller

Iamnobody said:

skankdelvar;761794" said:

Dear so-called Apple

It's all so unfair. I wrote this letter to tell you I hate you and so all my friends will see that I'm totally right on and then some woman might want to go out with me for a coffee.

Regards

Barry 'The Voice Of Truth' BadgerCleethorpesNE Lincs

Agreed - open letters are an attention seeking piece of wank.

People trying to jump on the bandwagon.

scrumhalf

Dear Apple

I use a Windows PC. I have an Android tablet and phone. I have Cowon and Sansa mp3 players.

I own nothing of yours. I have never owned anything of yours. I will never own anything of yours.

Hahahahahahahahaha

I beg to remain your obedient servant

Flink_Poyd

Gassage;49626" said:

This from a  writer. He is spot on.



Dear master brains at Apple, thank you for launching "Apple Music" and paying $0,002 per stream to an artist. What a great deal!!!! So lets say I´m a young musician and I´m dreaming of to becoming a professional artist. So I´m going to buy your great apple products: Mac Book Pro $2.000,00

Logic Pro $199,00

Final Cut Pro $299,00 = $2.498,00 paid to APPLE In order to amortize the payment to Apple I need to achieve ONLY 1.25 million streams through Apple Music!!!!!!!!! While 1.25 million consumers would pay 12.5 million dollars per month to Apple for streaming my music for 30 days. This is a super duper deal....I just forgot I´m not famous yet.

Just make it on a fucking Windows laptop then for fucks sake

sticker

if that was written by "a writer" they'd know it's "where HAS the music gone"...

simonk

"There is only one question: Where is the music gone?"

^ Good grief! If the writer was aiming for coherent argument, they failed. Probably penned by someone from Samsung.

Edit: nothing against Samsung by the way; they make excellent refrigerators, amongst other stuff.

Jez6345789

Quick turn off the internet change is coming. 

The upside to streaming music is the following

You no longer have to fork out for "delete where appropriate"

The ropey 2nd album that is made up of left overs from the first, plus 2 new songs you wrote on tour which were basically  the sound check jams and a couple of bonus tracks  of the firsts albums hits played live. 

You never have to fork out again for the difficult 3rd Album.

That the record company has hyped to death

You will no longer have to endure the overblown fourth concept album thats been cobbled together on a tenuous gossamer of an idea that you came up with after taking obscene amounts of drugs but at that point in time you think  it is a revelation.

The Greatest Hits

Yes the drugs have you in their grip, you've spent 7 months in the studio and you have not produced a bean of musical worth. The record company cobbles together the best bits of the last 5 years, plus some worthless bonus and hypes the shit out of it to cash in on the three good songs on the first album that you actually spent most of the useful years writing. 

The patchy rehab Album enough said

The come back Album

Cleaned up and with a group of ghost song writers drafted in to polish the self indulgent shit you scribbled whilst in rehab about your shit life. At least 3 top producers parachuted in to capture your new found enthusiasm for music and the looming tax bill and bankruptcy its shit or bust, for you and the label who  have wracked up a huge bill on your behalf, that you need get some product out the door to pay.

Now the worlds gone digital you have to get off your arse no more releasing an album every few years expecting people to buy it, you need to sing for your supper and actually be a living breathing growing musician if you want to live the dream. 

Thank you Apple

BluesboyMitch

I know I'm going to sound like a miserable bastard but I do wonder if people really value anything anymore. Things break and they go buy something new, they don't repair or look after what they already have. 

Because i don't know my way round a Printed circuit board that was put together in China otherwise :P

Cabicular

By the way logic is great value for $199
It used to cost 3-4 times that and wasn't nearly as coherent

Danny1969

BluesboyMitch said:

I know I'm going to sound like a miserable bastard but I do wonder if people really value anything anymore. Things break and they go buy something new, they don't repair or look after what they already have. 

Because i don't know my way round a Printed circuit board that was put together in China otherwise :P

Macbooks are one of the few laptops you can actually get circuit diagrams for and when you have to get really badass on a component level repair this does actually make the repair possible ..... nothing to do with this thread but thought I would mention it

I've been stealing music my whole life, taping other kids records, recording from the radio, Nowdays it's Youtube etc. At least these streaming sites are making the artist some money however small

stickyfiddle

Stevepage said:

I know I'm going to sound like a miserable bastard but I do wonder if people really value anything anymore. Things break and they go buy something new, they don't repair or look after what they already have. 

There's a lot of this, but not just in music. 

Musicians have never been well paid, except for the very very top guys. This is still true - Your Coldplays, Sheerans and Metallicas are all getting megabucks every time they leave the house, and everyone else is scratching around playing in bars and whinging about it. 

The only difference is that now it's Apple and Spotify making the profit rather than Sony and EMI. Tidal almost got it right but then fucked it by still not really paying any money to artists and coming over as dull sanctimonious bastards in the process. The real issue is that there isn't any money in streaming on a per-stream basis, if you charge an amount people are willing to pay. 

Let's do maths...!!

10 quid a month doesn't go very far if you're listening to 100 songs a day, which is what I'd get through on an average day. (ie 3000 songs a month, so 0.3p per play, being conservative. That has to pay for: taxes, infrastructure costs, marketing, staff, and claw back all the R&D investment. It's not surprising that the guy making the music isn't going to get rich unless he gets millions - or billions - of plays.