"First of all, the current music-swapping scene is not about piracy. It's about personal preference. And this is nothing new: Personal preference is the basis for the industry....
During the Napster era, music sales were up 4 percent. Since the death of Napster, music sales are down 40 percent. The music industry seems to be ignoring this obvious relationship....
What I call the One-Nine Solution will take care of all these problems and put electronic distribution back on track: Return Napster to open trading. Write it off as promotion. Then drop the price of a new CD to $9, and keep it low. The economy is in a slump, and it's time to lower prices.
Next, get rid of old CDs, and move them through electronic channels at $1 an album. The old backlist records are dead anyway. Most of the CD industry has been propped up on people updating their vinyl collections, and those days are over. People would gladly pay $10 for ten old Bob Dylan albums delivered electronically, so they could burn their own Best of Dylan. There wouldn't be any real piracy, since people would be too busy getting good stuff cheap. As things now stand, record companies are hoarding old material that could be making money and serving the public need.
This would flood the country with music and re-habituate people into casual listening. And yes, they would do their own mixes. Everyone would be happy, and business would be booming. But with people who obviously do not understand the mechanisms of their own industry, what are the chances?" [PC Magazine, via LibraryPlanet.com]
Wednesday, May 01, 2002
