Missing The Point On Mobile Music
from the no,-you've-got-it-backwards dept
It seems like the music industry and mobile operators are so desperate to make mobile music work that they're completely missing the point again. Just as happened a few months ago when one popular band released a single as a ringtone first, some musician is now claiming that going mobile is his way to route around record labels he doesn't like. It is? Why mobile? Couldn't he done just as well releasing the song on the web as well? It seems like too many people (in both industries) are confusing the music with the platform. The platform is irrelevant in this day and age. That's why copy protection often angers people so much. We want to be able to listen to our music wherever, whenever and however we'd like. That means, we'd like to have the rights to a song in any format. We don't care if it's on a mobile or on a computer or on a CD or whatever -- as long as we can make sure it gets to wherever it needs to be so we can listen to it whenever and however we'd like. So, why would it ever make sense to offer a song up just on a mobile system? That doesn't "get around the record label," as the reporter claims in the article linked above. The mobile part has nothing to do with the music label. A music label is just as likely to do the same thing -- and an artist could be just as likely to offer up his or her songs online.
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Why "Mobile?"
Seems pretty simple to me. Were things really any different in the 78s vs 45s days?
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