May 20, 2008

Apple Ready to Bow Down to Record Labels?

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mojo-photo-applecrushed.jpgWith a 3G iPhone apparently around the corner, the NY Times is reporting that Apple may be more willing than ever to negotiate with record labels in exchange for, well, more stuff you can buy on your iPhone. Apple wants more ringtones and “ringback” songs (music you hear when you call somebody, which by the way is really annoying), as well as the ability to sell songs from iTunes right over the phone network. Currently, you can shop at iTunes on an iPhone only via WiFi or connecting to a computer.

After the jump: how much would you pay for Colbie Caillat?

Bargaining has been a mixed bag for Apple lately; while record labels seemingly lost the battle for variable song pricing (all tracks remain 99 cents), TV networks have been more aggressive: NBC famously dumped iTunes to go on dates with Amazon and Fox, and HBO recently broke iTunes’ $1.99-per-show barrier, with episodes of “Rome,” “Deadwood” and “The Sopranos” going for $2.99 each. Jeez, a couple of those every month and you might as well just get HBO on that box thing across from your couch, what was it called again?

Record labels’ demands for variable pricing seem more bothersome, however, since they hope to up the price of popular recordings (that Rihanna track will be $34 please) while clearing out the MP3 warehouse by lowering prices on forgotten hits of yesteryear (get your Hawkwind tracks here, 10 for a dollar). Apple’s been right to resist that: the user-friendly simplicity of “a dollar per song” is part of what makes iTunes so popular. Universal, specifically, is lobbying for a subscription service, which seems even worse: imagine your iPhone coming locked in with a year of whatever crap Universal Music puts out. Now, if Apple could arrange a Merge subscription, maybe we’d have something there.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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