Das hier vom guardian blog schlägt in die selbe Kerbe:
Want to increase profits? Avoid iTunes.Altough CD sales are declining, they are more profitable for some bands than selling tracks.
Kid Rock’s album Rock’n’Roll Jesus isn’t on iTunes and has sold 1.7 million copies in the US alone, which is very profitable business. […]
Maybe there is more money to be made from selling albums than selling individual tracks online, even though that’s what consumers seem to prefer. […]
Other groups have benefited from avoiding iTunes, and the WSJ cites AC/DC and the Beatles as examples:
The Australian hard rockers sold an estimated 2.7 million CDs world-wide last year, up from 2.55 million in 2003. The band has consistently sold more than one million CDs in the US alone, year after year. Overall US album sales — of both CDs and digital downloads — declined 21% to 500 million copies in 2007 from 2003, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Since the beginning of 2006, only the Beatles have sold more „catalog“ albums in the US than AC/DC — also without licensing their music to iTunes. Among the six best-selling catalog artists during that period, the act that sold the most individual songs digitally — the Rolling Stones — sold the fewest albums, digital or physical. That is important because while the Stones‘ six million single tracks sold may seem impressive, they represent low-cost, low-profit transactions.