Apple's iPod still leads the portable music player field even with its moderately steep price. Apple is happy with how sales are going. This profit window is necessary for Apple to remain in the online music business. Other manufacturers are now entering the fray of portable players which will take a slice out of Apple's revenue. Dell, Aiwa, and Sony are gearing up for new MP3 players. Sony has had to cancel their introduction of two models due to inherent defects but this will only be a delay until they launch their product line. The Sony product also has a built in FM radio. Rio, Archos and other companies are also competing in the personal music player market. The volume of players will surely impact iPod sales.

The music cartels have been raving about how legitimate online downloads are the salvation to the music industry's dropping sales. The music industry's PR machine has been cranking out praises for the services but their words don't ring true. According to Napster and Apple, business isn't doing well.

What's wrong with this picture? The overall picture is that it is extremely expensive to enter into the download market. The record labels want all the revenue. The costs of operation and Internet connections are very high. The consumer wants low prices and a lot of choice. Until the labels are willing to release their grip on the provider's wallets, the problem will not go away.

So, things are the same as they were 3 months ago. Online music download services are all losing money. There is no reason for any sane business to enter into a business venture where they can't even break even. There is a great deal of turmoil in the market and things are not as pretty as the music industry would have you believe. One of two things needs to happen. The costs of entry and sustaining the business must be significantly reduced or the music industry has to help these services to sell their product for them by reducing the fees that they are currently demanding. Or, both.

Seed Newsvine