Apple thwarting music podcasts …
… at least those of independent music podcasters.
A group of independent music podcasters says that Apple is thwarting independent music podcasters. The group announced that Apple is not publishing some of the feeds of some of its members’ podcasts at the iTunes Music Store.
Well, music podcasts may hurt music sales at the iTunes music store .. although I am definitely not sure.
Here, (beware german posting) I claimed that
Andererseits bergen Podcasts auch eine gewisse Gefahr der Kannibalisierung wenn Podcast-Downloads (profitablere ?) Musikdownloads verdrängen. Die Gefahr dass Apples iTunes Kunden abwandern und interessante Inhalte “auf eigene Faust” und via andere Aggregatoren (Nimiq, iPodder, etc.) suchen wollen ist dagegen eher gering.
Man sieht hier letztlich auch, dass für Apple der Verkauf von iPods im Vordergrund steht, nicht das Verkaufen von Musik … auch ein Grund warum die Mainstream-Musikindustrie nicht sooo mit Apple zufrieden ist.
Apples business model is not easy … it is a complex mess, as most businesses are. Still, barring independent content (that is btw hosted somewhere else so no costs are there for Apple) smells like censoring to me … or at least trimming the offerings to Apples tastes …
Derrick Oien, President of AMP says that his podcast, which began in the fall of 2004, is among many not yet listed in the iTunes directory. “It appears that Apple is more concerned with molding the community to their immediate commercial needs than with embracing this open community and adhering to an effective long term strategy. We have witnessed the early evolution of podcasting at a break-neck pace; partly because podcasting”s open format rapidly adapts to fit the needs of the community at large. Successful corporations will embrace rather than attempt to control this phenomenon.”
