Question #3a:
3 specific questions in the spirit of Andrew Duncalfe's question.
1) Why not embrace the technology for greater profits?
I have blank CDs and a CD burner. You, the record company, have content. Sell me the content and let's skip the plastic box, the pre-printed CD, and the little flaps of paper with writing too small to read. I will burn my own CD or MD, or place the content on my file server for safekeeping. If you make the price reasonable, I'll buy all my music this way and you can eliminate ALL of the middle men. The majority of people are honest and would pay a reasonable amount for the convenience and quality you could offer.
2) Do you believe that last sentence? and
3) Why wouldn't this work?
Mark Mavroudis
Cary Sherman:
Of course record companies want to embrace the technology for greater profits. That's what they've done before, and that's what they want to do again. How to do it isn't so clear or easy, however.
All of the majors are already offering sales via downloads. So you can skip the plastic box and all that (although lots of music fans want that stuff). Some of the majors have recently announced price reductions (99 cents a track, $1.49 a track, etc.). Some are beginning to allow burning as well. And all of them want to allow transfers to other devices (like portable music players, car stereos, etc.). (All the companies recognize that portability is key; that people will not accept music that can only be listened to on a computer; and the technology companies keep promising that portability with security is "almost ready," but software isn't the only vaporware.)
So the market for downloads is developing, and it will probably start to move more quickly now that a lot of the clearance problems have been solved.
Yes, I do believe that most people are honest and would pay a reasonable amount for convenience and quality. What I also believe is that it doesn't take much for people to justify not paying. If it's a major artist, they say "they're already rich enough." If it's an unknown artist, they say "I'm doing her a favor by promoting her work." But in the end, convenience will count for a lot; and security will count for even more (only now are the security flaws in P2P systems becoming known, not to mention the privacy risks). So I'm optimistic about the prospects for legitimate businesses online.
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