3 ms·

There is a big, obvious difference between the app stores and the music business: The number and transparency of middlemen. If you want to know how much money

There is a big, obvious difference between the app stores and the music business: The number and transparency of middlemen. If you want to know how much money an artist makes from selling a CD in a supermarket, you can find a large number of handwavy blog posts, but the conclusion is consistently "probably not a lot, but depends on what they could negotiate". If you want to know what an app developer makes from selling a $0.99 app? The answer is $0.70. I think that makes a lot of difference in trust in the channel from both sides of the table.

wr1472 14y ago
Are you confusing trust with transparency?
- laughinghan 14y ago
  No, they first stated that there's a difference in transparency, then explained they believe this results in a difference in trust.
ricree 14y ago
Are those two comparable, though? Independent music on Itunes, for example, has a fixed royalty. From what I gather, a 0.99 song has the same 0.70 royalty you're talking about for apps. The CD example you're talking about is more like boxed software, which suffers from the same transparency issues. The big difference between the two are that store shelf music is basically the same product as downloaded music. Unlike apps, which are on different devices, serve different purposes, and have a very different price point than boxed software.
- mseebach 14y ago
  Well, in my perspective, both music and apps are bits (practically free to copy, transfer and store), and the relevant transaction is putting those bits onto an end user device. While music is routinely pirated (and this action sanctioned in many communities), apps aren't (and it's not because of jailing - this is also true for Android apps). While I'm sure pirated apps are available, I've just never come across them, it's nowhere nearly as conspicuous as pirated music.

3 ms·

There is a big, obvious difference between the app stores and the music business: The number and transparency of middlemen. If you want to know how much money

by mseebach 14y ago

wr1472 14y ago
Are you confusing trust with transparency?
- laughinghan 14y ago
  No, they first stated that there's a difference in transparency, then explained they believe this results in a difference in trust.
ricree 14y ago
Are those two comparable, though? Independent music on Itunes, for example, has a fixed royalty. From what I gather, a 0.99 song has the same 0.70 royalty you're talking about for apps. The CD example you're talking about is more like boxed software, which suffers from the same transparency issues. The big difference between the two are that store shelf music is basically the same product as downloaded music. Unlike apps, which are on different devices, serve different purposes, and have a very different price point than boxed software.
- mseebach 14y ago
  Well, in my perspective, both music and apps are bits (practically free to copy, transfer and store), and the relevant transaction is putting those bits onto an end user device. While music is routinely pirated (and this action sanctioned in many communities), apps aren't (and it's not because of jailing - this is also true for Android apps). While I'm sure pirated apps are available, I've just never come across them, it's nowhere nearly as conspicuous as pirated music.