Is is just me or has anyone else noticed that out of the 37 categories that you can sort the music in your iTunes library by, not one of them is by the record label.

While at the iTunes store things aren’t much better. At least it does tell you which label any specific track comes from, but when it comes to searching by label, well forget it.

Are Apple trying to tell the music industry that the only brands the fans care about in the digital space are the artists and iTunes itself, or did Apple get it wrong in assuming we that we don’t care much about which labels are responsible for providing the music we love?

For any music fans who grew up in the 60s, 70s or 80s labels were important, providing a stamp of authority, a guarantee of quality or just an easy way to discover new music. But in the new digital age do labels mean anything to the majority of young music fans who get their music via P2P sites, or if you are lucky download the odd tune from the likes of iTunes?

Or maybe the labels themselves are to blame for the demise of these once much loved brand names, by not cherishing their own once great heritage. The merger of once iconic labels such as Island, Virgin, Elektra and Veritgo into the four major labels has slowly destroyed their identity as they became no more than a separate department, or worse just a few lines on the holding companies P&L statement.

It wil be interesting to see how the boutique labels of the future tackle this new identity crisis.

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