The Who's Pete Townshend sinks stake into the heart of Apple
Pete Townshend, lead guitarist and songwriter for The Who, has launched a no holds barred assault on Apple’s iTunes store, describing it (appropriately enough for Halloween) as a “digital vampire”.
Townsend’s outburst centres on the accusation that Apple’s media platform is bleeding artists dry, killing off the record industry by failing to do enough to support the artists from which it profits so heavily.
Rather than holy water however Townshend believes that simply hiring 20 talent scouts would be sufficient to slay this particular monster.
Speaking at the inaugural John Peel lecture in Manchester Townshend said: “Is there really any good reason why, just because iTunes exists in the wild west Internet land of Facebook and Twitter, it can't provide some aspect of these services to the artists whose work it bleeds like a digital vampire... for its enormous commission?”