RIAA files 80 new file-swapping suits

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Now Some Ideas

Patrick, you've put forth some ideas worth considering. I certainly cannot agree with your idea that once a song is played on radio, you should be able to download it (presumably, you meant for free). You might want to consider that such a model would immediately spell the end either of music copyright or free radio music. You are effectively saying that once a song is played on free radio, it is in the public domain and available to anyone for free. So, once the first radio station to play a work plays it and pays their $1, that's it. Anyone can now get it for free and the artist and music company gets $1 for their trouble. I don't think that will quite work.

Now the question of "lower prices and better services" is an interesting matter. Prices are supposed to be set (in a capitalist environment) by supply and demand. Because the music industry is (currently) primarily based on the "album" (mostly CD) model and because the making, processing and distribution of CDs tends to be pretty similar in cost, regardless of the content (with variation, of course), the price tends to be pretty similar. The system, however, is a bit skewed and fairly popular (high demand) compilations tend to be priced pretty similar to low demand stuff, with exceptions, of course, e.g. older compilations tend to be several dollars cheaper than the newer material. In any case, the industry (including retailers) will tend to maximize their profits and charge what they think the traffic will bear. As demand decreases, I would look for prices to ease a bit. Also, there is lots of subsidy in the music business through this model. High demand material tends to subsidize low demand material, increasing the availability of a wider range of music and musical tastes.

Your single song idea is also interesting, but plainly flies against music business history which has mostly (at least since the 50s - my era) been a history of selling compilations. The general idea is that these compilations are artistic statements and you are buying a range of artistic material by the artist(s) on a single disk. You say you often find only one or two good pieces on some disks (presumably, the more popular ones), but beauty, my friend is in the eye of the beholder and what you may find interesting or likable, I may not and vice versa, so we may find different interest in the same compilation and believe the other guy's choices are "junk". In your model, artists might just "put out" a bunch of things and then let consumers pick and choose hoping they will find the artistic threads. And don't forget, we are not just talking rock bands here. Music distributed in the current model covers a wide range of tastes and styles, but they all utilize the same model. How, for example, would you do Movie soundtracks or Broadway show compilations or Classical?

By the way, how did you arrive at your "$8 or $9 at most" figure? A hope or actual value of any work?

Posted by: Don Bradley   Posted on: 10/31/03 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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