Online Music… in 1909
So… it seems that way back in 1909 “residents of Wilmington, DE, were able to subscribe to an online music service that piped phonograph recordings over their telephone lines and through loudspeakers.” We all know what happened after that, of course: the music industry collapsed and we haven’t had any music since then. Right?
Hell, no! Of course the industry didn’t collapse—just like the movie studios didn’t collapse after the VCR came out, despite the fact that they claimed it would ruin them. The current “online music” issue is no different than before except now Congress has finally caved in to Big Media and they’ve given the go-ahead for the Broadcast Flag. Thanks so much for protecting our interests, :FCC:.
Posted Monday November 10, 2003 in News by Chris Curtis
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Chris I think I understand your point. But I have to interject something. I also do not believe that online music services are going to destroy the record companies. But I differ here perhaps. I think they are no threat because their services suck! I think it is a crime to pay a monthly subscription fee for songs that will never belong to you. And then to pay extra if you do want to own some of it for yourself.
The subscription fees come out to about 12-13 cds worth of purchasing power a year. Except at the end of that year you don’t own those cd’s and you don’t own your “unlimited” downloads either. Nice trick! Not to mention the additional purchasing power you have expended on owning single, burnable “tracks”, which you “legally” have limitedly permission to own.
So now you ownly own it as much as they say you do. Another nice trick.
On these “burnable” tracks say we spend $40 or two cd’s worth of purchasing power a year. (perhaps more). Then let’s not forget the number of cd’s you were gonna buy anyway down at you local wally world or disco-rama-records. Say you buy 12-15 a year. Now the good thing is you own those babies. But now we have spent 30 cds worth of purchasing power a year, but only own at best 17. ( 2 of those are limited ownership - meaning we can only legally burn them a limited amount of times ).
Get rid of the subscription fees for people who only want to purchase “burnable” tracks and then you may have something as far as a real viable service. It can be estimated conservatively a total purchasing power to be from about $450 to $510 a year. Man those mail order cd clubs giving you 11 cds for the price of one sure are sounding good right now.
By Caesar on November 16, 2003 at 05:59am link