The Digital Music Renaissance -- In Spite Of The Industry's Efforts
from the how-many-times-does-this-need-to-be-stated dept
You have to wonder sometimes whether or not the recording industry will ever figure this out, but the power of digital music to make a better, more informed and more willing to buy consumer seems completely lost on them. Andrew Leonard, over at Salon, has written a great essay on how the digitalization of music files has changed his music consumption habits. Note that he's not talking about downloading music from file sharing systems, but having the freedom to discover new music easily, obtain that music without too many hurdles, and then do with it what he wants. That's what's so powerful. While the industry is entirely focused on people "not paying" for music, they're missing the opportunity to engage all those who just want to be better music consumers. And, as Leonard points out, no matter how hard they try, the economics of supply and demand show that the industry will never win this battle. "Instead of trying to prevent me from enjoying my own music, the recording industry should be working as hard as it can to get everything online and available, cheaply. It should be making it easier for me to rip and burn to my heart's content. Because when I'm happy listening to music, it doesn't take much encouragement for me to spend more money."
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
The Digital Recording Industry Rennaissance
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Not for me
2. I don't want to use inferior formats like WMA9 or MP4 (Apple's broken AAC) I want FLAC or OGG.
2 can't happen without 1 happening (OGG doesn't have DRM) and I doubt greedy music execs will agree to 1, so they've lost my sales....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
and people wonder why we continue to download FREELY available music illegally ...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]