What about digital casstte recorders? What about CDROM/DVDROM burners? Did
you know that you can use a HiFi VCR in audio-only mode to record
digital-quality audio tracks?
This is history: each new generation of technology is seen as the source of
the evil. Since the first monk hand-copied the first book, people have been
copying things. I am not saying that it is "right" or "ethical", but let's
not get hung up on balming the the technology (or as I call it,
"sixty-year-old-white-man's disease").
The movie industry whined that the the VCR would destroy the movie business.
But what has really happened is that in order to compete with home theater,
the industry has had to build theaters with comfortable chairs, stadium
seating, and digital surround sound. And they don't seem to be hurting at
all....last night I had to wait in line to buy tickets to the next showing,
'cause the one I wanted to see was sold out.
Why should we have to pay $14-$20 for a couple of hit singles sandwiched on
a CD with all of the otherwise unsaleable tracks?
I think what we are seeing is the emergence of a new business model, enabled
by the ubiquitous presence of personal information technology.
The market always wins.........no government or standards organization has
ever been able to ban anything......if people (the market) demand a product,
it will be produced and delivered. In this case, what the market is saying
is the current studio distribution channels are inefficient and a new, more
efficient model is emerging. The record companies can play or not, but at
best they will only slightly delay the inevitable. The artists (or their
business managers) will figure out how to make lots of money in the new
model. Maybe more, since a few rich, oligopolistic companies will no longer
have a strangelhold on the distribution channels. But the artists are going
to have to work harder for our money, because we will no longer be forced to
buy the "B" side. And the innovative artists that are labeled
"non-commercial" by the big record companies today will face much lower
barriers to their entry into the market.
I am getting down off of the soapbox now.
Sign me,
An Unashamed Free-market Capitalist Pig
