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ivan@stellysee.de
From | Bob Hutton <bob_hutton@standardlife.com> |
Subject | Re: The Great Debate (Round 2) |
Date | Tue, 22 May 2007 10:17:53 +0100 |
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I just read that article in the Chicago Tribune blog that Bill Sherlock
posted.
I found it odd that some people (invariably from the music business)
argued that a dollar a song seemed like a fair price, given that there are
inherent overheads involved in selling music online as well (although at
least with onlinhe music, your stock never runs out!). What they didn't
seem to realise was the end-product does NOT have the same value at all.
Instead of a physical high-quality sounding CD with artwork, you get a
low-quality, compressed mp3 file - which is also shackled by DRM - dumped
on your hard drive. People who are content with that will probably be
happier to get the same song for free via file-sharing. I don't know
anyone who regularly purchases albums off iTunes/Napster/whatever. Only a
few friends have said they'll even buy the occasional song! I myself have
only used iTunes to for free promotional downloads, when I got a stack of
them a couple of years back.
I would argue that a dollar per song may be what the people in the biz
think they need to maintain a reasonable standard of living. But a dollar
doesn't seem to be a fair price to the consumer for what is currently
offered online.
On another point, I take back my comments on the IKE sponsorship debate -
I guess if fans are happy to cough up what the band asks, then that's fair
enough. I hope they end up with an great album, worthy of their aggregate
contributions. I still wouldn't be happy to pony up that amount myself,
but I shouldn't judge others' sincerity - my apologies all round.
Bob - 0131 24(51188)
Systems Developer
IS DG3
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