Other Sites

I'm not a dedicated user of the iTunes Music Store. Although I certainly appreciate the convenience of it, I just...well, let me put it like this. You know those guys, usually at least in their mid-30s, who bemoan the loss of the LP because they miss the artwork, the warm sound of a vinyl record and large package they can actually hold? I'm one of them. Kind of. I buy CDs, and pretty much only buy LPs when I can find them for 25 cents at used record stores.

That being said, I do use the iTunes music store. Whereas I used to purchase greatest hits collections to just get five or six songs, I can now buy only the songs I want. Or, even better, I can use iTunes to round out those annoying greatest hits collections that seem to leave off the band's best song (I'm looking at you, Jackson Browne). There are also soundtracks to consider; I'm not going to purchase the Sky High soundtrack just to get the They Might Be Giants cover of Devo's "We're Through Being Cool," but I'm more than happy to spend a dollar on the song. And then there are all of those bonus tracks. In fact, it was a search for bonus songs that became the impetus for this article.

One of my new favorite bands, OK Go, recently released their sophomore album, Oh No. OK Go, like Oasis and Sleeper before them, are one of those bands with fantastic b-side material. They don't cut songs from their albums because they're no good, but because they don't fit in, presumably, and so their b-sides tend to include some of their more interesting material. Therefore, I'm constantly hunting down these harder to obtain tracks. Because I hate spending import prices for CD singles when I only want one song, I check iTunes. And while doing a search for OK Go recently, I came across a song called "Super OK" by the band Zolof the Rock and Roll Destroyer.

Say what you like about the name, but it stood out. The combination of the "Swedish death metal" name (as lead singer/keyboardist Rachel Minton put it) and the Japanese-cute artwork intrigued me, so I visited their site, listened to their sample tracks and bought all of their CDs (although, strangely a couple seem to have since disappeared from the iTunes catalog).

It struck me, then, that I wouldn't have even heard of this Philly "spunk rock" band had it not been for the iTunes Music Store. When I also learned that Zolof uses Macs (from their "historic G3" to their in-studio G4 for recording to their touring iBook for laying down tracks in GarageBand), I decided to ask Rachel her thoughts about the store and why the band decided to list their tracks.

"We have no choice in the matter; it's the method that the labels who sell our songs have chosen," she admitted, but then added, "It seems like a good deal to me, though. It's an easy, cheap answer to illegal file sharing. I would say the only downfall is not having the physical artwork.

Would she rather people buy their CDs directly from them than from iTunes? Yes, and the reason why should be obvious.

"We don't really ever see any money from sales through Amazon, iTunes, etc. (the reason why is because we're a smaller band)," Rachel explained. "Also, it makes us feel good knowing how many people are purchasing the album per month."

But if the band's not making much money, how valuable a tool is iTunes?

"Regardless of who profits, it's most important that our songs are accessible to people," Rachel pointed out. "Doesn't anyone remember the 90s when you had to find some obscure little record store to buy the indie album that you were looking for? iTunes is a much easier and faster way to reach your fans. It's also great because you can download one song to see if you like it, and/or purchase an album one song at a time. Allowing people to sample your music for 99 cents is awesome..."

This thought is echoed by Christian Rudder of Bishop Allen, an indie band NPR's Weekend Edition calls "Vibrant, vivid, and refreshingly different." Their first release, "Charm School," drew 4 stars from Rolling Stone and prompted All Music Guide to state, "...how rock as meant to be." More importantly, they're a band my wife and I both loved on first listen, and that doesn't happen as often as I'd like.

Bishop Allen released Charm School on their own label, Champagne School, in 2003, and have now embarked on an ambitious EP-A-Month project. Every month, the band releases another set of four songs. This is the kind of forward thinking campaign that would baffle record industry executives, but is perfectly suited for the iTunes Music Store. The trouble is that it's now June, and whereas the CDs are available for order from Bishop Allen's site, and have recently been made available there are digital downloads, only the January and February sets are up on iTunes at the time this article was published. Does the band hold back the releases so they can first get sales from their website where they make more money? Of course not. That's an industry thing to do, not an indie artist. Ends up, it's iTunes' fault.

"We'd love to have all our songs up there the minute we release them," Christian explained. "Unfortunately, the Music Store moves pretty slowly in approving our songs, so there's a few month's lag. We've been submitting them all along, but I think the wheels don't turn as fast as they could for an unsigned band."

Despite this issue, Christian is very positive about the iTunes Music Store. "Aside from the delay in getting the music up there, which I suppose is ironic given the immediacy of the digital medium, iTunes is great...it's the world's most popular music store, so just having our records up there on the shelves is a huge boon. We don't have distribution in the physical world and iTunes is certainly the next best thing. I imagine we've sold a fair proportion of the songs we've sold to people who are just browsing. Even though we offer digital purchasing on our own site, we can't make new fans that way, only get music to our existing fan base."

And there it is. People are discovering Bishop Allen the same way I discovered Zolof; the same I discovered so many bands at countless record stores in the 1980s...stumbling across them. That's not to say the iTunes Music Store is like the local independent record store with the Suicidal Tendencies posters hanging up and the goth chick behind the counter. There aren't countless cheaply made flyers for amp repair and local concerts in the doorway, and you can't find Queen bootlegs from Japan. It's more like a digital Fye or Coconuts, promoting mainly what the big labels want them to promote. (As I write this, Bowling for Soup, Keane, Fat Boy Slim and Barenaked Ladies are rotating in the iTunes marquis behind my BBEdit window. Bowling for Soup? And as Radio Disney exclusive, no less? Come on, Apple, I thought you were cool.)

The band Splitsville is also indie, but they've been indie long enough to at least have a manager who handles their iTunes work for them. I discovered Splitsville the old fashioned way: they opened for another band I went to see back in '97. I now own all of their albums...mostly. See, for some odd reason, a couple of this Baltimore-based band's albums were only available as imports, which was extremely frustrating. But times have changed, and Splitsville manager Rob Toomey explains why iTunes was an obvious choice for making their music more readily available.

"The main advantage with iTunes is its reach and market share. I believe over 70% of music downloaded is via iTunes, so getting Splitsville material on there was a must for us," Rob explained. I asked him if it was difficult to do so, as I've heard from other bands. Rob replied, "For Splitsville, it wasn't complicated at all, because our online accounts were set up via an indie music site called CD Baby. For a price (about 9 cents a download), CD Baby will submit an artist's music to iTunes and about 30 other download sites (Rhapsody, Sony, Napster, PassAlong, etc, etc.). I tried getting Splitsville stuff on iTunes by myself, and got nowhere. I couldn't even figure out to whom to speak to get the process started. If you don't have a record label doing this for you, CD Baby is the way to go."

So, CD Baby earns 9 cents to save us plenty more in import fees and inflated prices on ebay. Seems fair to me. An album I would've paid about $25 to import instead cost about $5.00 to get just the tracks I needed. I was certainly pleased, but what about their other fans?

"Fans have reacted great, particularly with our older material which is difficult to find," Rob said. "Splitsville CDs sometimes go for $20 to $30 on eBay and the like. Our first CD, Splitsville USA, is long out of print and impossible to track down over the internet. One site has it listed for $49.99! I'm in the process of getting it on iTunes via CD Baby, and I expect some fans to jump on if for the $9.99 download price."

Indeed. Thankfully, I won't have to. I already own a copy, and I recommend everyone check out the tracks "Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Larry Storch, Larry Storch" and "I Was a Teenage Frankenstein."

And so, although the iTunes Music Store shills the same old music as your average corporate run record store or radio station, the joy is that, like independent record stores and radio stations of the past, there are plenty of gems to find if you dig a little deeper. Don't let iTunes make suggestions for you...it doesn't know your musical tastes. I mean, seriously, what in Sam Hill did I buy that made them think I'd want Elton John's "Step Into Christmas" or Usher featuring Lil' John and Ludacris's "Yeah!" in my "Just for You" box? Do a search, play around, see what you find. I'll be bold enough to suggest you start with Zolof the Rock and Roll Destroyer, Bishop Allen or Splitsville. 99 cents isn't a lot to pay to try out a new band, and, in the spirt of rock and roll, samples are free.