MediaFile

Once again, record companies are questioning the wisdom of selling music on iTunes. This time, the griping shows up the Wall Street Journal.

Basically, the argument is that music companies are starting to believe that selling single songs through Apple’s iTunes is bad for the industry (an industry, by the way, that is badly depressed and counts heavily on iTunes for sales and promotion).

The case for steering clear of iTunes is made through the example of Kid Rock’s “Rock ‘n Roll Jesus” album, which wasn’t sold through Apple’s site. Yet the album still sold an impressive 1.7 million copies, the article points out…

“In so many ways it’s turned our business back into a singles business,” says Ken Levitan, Kid Rock’s manager. Mr. Levitan says the rise of iTunes is far from being a boon to the industry; instead, he calls it “part of the death knell of the music business.”

Complaints from the music industry about iTunes are nothing new. Are executives are just looking a gift horse in the mouth? Or perhaps they have a point. Either way, as paidContent points out, there aren’t really any viable options out there right now.

It’s called deep-packet inspection. Congress wonders if it’s plain-old spying. Basically, it’s when web companies track their customers’ visits online and use the information to tailor Internet advertisements for them.

Congress was worried about it enough to begin questioning some of the biggest Internet companies about the practice this month.  And guess what? It seems some web companies are indeed using targeting without informing their customers.

The Washington Post writes that the revelations come from letters released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.