Chicago based Indie Soul label Numero Group has come out publicly saying that it will not get on board with Apple’s iTunes Match due to issues they have with payment to the artists and issues with breaking copyrights:
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.
Ars Technica has talked with one of the company’s higher ups who feels as though iTunes Match is legitimizing piracy — and that pirates could use the service to replace the low quality MP3s they downloaded.
We are primarily a physical goods company,” co-owner Rob Sevier said. “Because of that, we don’t get too bogged down in bootlegging; we just can’t stay up all night and worry about it. But for Apple to say that all your bootlegs are welcome, it just bothers us.”
Which completely ignores those of us who converted our CD collections to MP3, bought digital downloads through BandCamp, directly from artists, or through other digital distribution paths like Amazon and non-American stores.
That said, I can see where Sevier is coming from with regards to the money that would actually make it to the artists from your $25 a year being an utter pittance.
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