Customers Don't Want DRM
from the well,-duh dept
While the government, the music industry, and the tech industry spend all their time arguing amongst themselves about the whole digital entertainment "problem", they keep forgetting about the most important people: the consumers. The consumers are willing to pay for music, but they don't want digital rights management technologies telling them what they can and can't do with their entertainment. They don't want to be limited. While I agree this is most likely true, this article bases the entire argument on the anecdotal evidence of one (yes, one) consumer. It would have been more interesting if they had some numbers to back it up - or at least spoke to a few more people. Either way, I'm beginning to run out of ways to try to explain to the entertainment industry that trying to block people from doing what they want to do isn't generally a good business strategy. Giving customers what they want is a good strategy. How difficult is this to understand?
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Give me a product I want, and I'll buy it
I've been buying a lot of used CDs lately, for the same reason as Davidian isn't buying new: the current product stinks. If there were interesting things being released, I'd buy them and listen to 'em on the JB6000 at work.
Why might CD sales be seeing a drop? Well, how about bad products that don't allow me to use them the way I want. Seems like pretty basic product planning errors are at fault, not Napster clones or anything else. I have no problem paying for what I want...it just needs to be a good deal for me.
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Sick of the BS!
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Re: Give me a product I want, and I'll buy it
Ditto. Back when we had rights there was an something called "Fair Use".
>If there were interesting things being released, I'd buy them and listen to 'em on the JB6000 at work.
I stream my mp3s off of my iMac using netjuke.
>Why might CD sales be seeing a drop?
You forgot to mention the economy. Most people would rather eat than buy a CD... even from their favorite band.
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So tell me...
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Re: So tell me...
I'm sure that in this scenario, bootlegs would still exist, but they'd vary in quality, much like they did before the days of Napster. They'd either come from recording an analog source, or smuggling a digital copy out of a recording studio.
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Re: So tell me...
If people wanted to get older computers and use analog recording technology, they're free too, but Joe Sixpack referenced earlier probably would see that as too much effort for a less that 100% product and not bother.
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