Music Sales to Save Radio?

I've heard quite a few very senior radio execs talk recently about retail music sales being a way for radio to generate additional revenue. They want to put a transaction "button" on radios that allow for upstream communication to enable a listener to buy a song that is currently playing. This is real "out of the frying pan and into the fire" thinking. The music business is one of the few industries more messed up than radio.

Let me share a quote from Phil Schiller, SVP at Apple...

"The iPod makes money. The iTunes Music Store doesn't,"

Apple and their music store are currently dominating the music industry. Apple runs ITMS at break even so they can sell iPods at 50% gross margin.

Music is a loss leader for Apple. Copying the loss leader product of another industry to save your industry is not going to fly.

Comments

[sarsip]

I won't argue your main point, but using an article published in 2003 for evidence doesn't seem best either.

[Erik]

Just do the math, selling music is an inconsequential business to apple. That has not changed since Schiller's statement. They're in it to support hardware sales.

It would be a worse business for radio who have trouble putting together a website that does not suck, let alone an ecommerce site that can handle tens of millions of transactions a month.