oh...i bet you did.Chuck E. Jesus wrote:i didn't read all of this either...fanfarecircuit wrote:i didn't read all this..so maybe i'm restating something...
i don't think it's a bad idea at all to have music be free. and it's plausible, if you think about it. the problem has always been the record companies that take advantage of artist and listeners because in the past they were the only means of distribution. with digital media it is quite possible for artists to eliminate the record company who takes the majority of income from any given song. let's say an artist gets a few pennies per album sold traditionally. now if the same artist sold digitally on their own downloads for each song, they would make 100% profit on each download. this would enable them to give away the majority of the album and maybe have people pay for a few songs. even if someone was only required to pay for 1 song to complete the album, that's $.99 in the artist pocket. more than they are getting for a traditionally sold cd. the problem here is copy protection. instead of distribution costs, you have DRM companies charging too much for protecting the music, but still not as expensive as traditional costs. subscription sites like emusic are not that expensive on the consumer end, but i don't know how the artist makes out. i guess the problem has always been not how to give away music to everyone, but how to take greedy businessmen out of the equation. if people could by a complete record download for under 5 bucks direct from the artist complete with digital artwork, i think everyone would be real happy with that. bring back the single and give that away. the final problem is that most music in the past has their copyrights held by the record companies, and they ain't letting go. free is too much to ask for. but direct sales through artists big and small at a much cheaper and consumer friendly price is definitely not out of the question. it just takes a few bold musicians out of contract to start the ball rolling (r.e.m.? 2 more records to go with WB).
what's your problem with me anyway?
i don't remember being nasty or mean spirited to you.
