We’ll keep our comments short because these are likely questions that will soon be duked out in courts and all the blogosphere handwringing in the world is not going to have any effect on the results. After all, it’s only been one day since the announcement of Apple’s new product, iCloud, and it’s hard to speculate exactly what it will mean for record label like ours. However, we feel that a great risk is being taken by Apple and the major labels that have accepted the terms of this new product wholesale with not a thought beyond the 150M * those so-called “big four” will probably divide and pay to their top executives. By that, we mean that laws that protect compositions and copyrights for songs are, more or less, being trampled under these agreements.
In the coming weeks, many customers and friends will ask us this question: why am I not able to automatically access Numero in my iCloud? The simple reason is that Apple and their major label “partners” have created a reward system that is both incomprehensible in scope and totally out of sync with iCloud’s streaming peers’ (Rdio, Spotify, et al) financial mechanics. As we have been entrusted with an incredible wealth of creative assets, and our primary responsibility is to our partners; the artists, producers, and songwriters that make up the Numero catalog, we feel that Apple’s pittance is an insult not only to them, but every other musician, living or dead, and, if the latter is the case, their heirs.
With that in mind, we have declined Apple’s invitation to iCloud.
* Robert Kondrk from iTunes was kind enough to point out that, although reported heavily in many publications, Apple paid $0 to the big four.
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