Are you throwing the baby out with the bath water?
A recent study showed that over 60% of people surveyed preferred getting music for free. Well, duh! The pro-Napster article that gave me this useful information seemed to imply this means Napster will rule and the record companies are all dead meat. A study I just did showed that all my friends prefer getting free beer to paying for it. Profound, huh? Or maybe that just says something about my friends. June 1, 2000
The study mentioned above (the real one, not mine), part of Greenfield Online's ongoing Digital ConsumerT series that examines attitudes and usage of the online public, is interpreted by some Napster supporters to mean people won't pay for music over the Internet so leave Napster alone. Music is supposed to be free, is the mantra they chant. Everyone knows the big music companies have been ripping off the bands and the record-buying public for years so it's only fair to screw them now. Music over the Internet should be free. We'll put all the albums we can on the Internet for free download and to hell with the record companies. See how they'll like that! I know this feels good but they're throwing the baby out with the bath water. "Through rose-coloured glasses" is a phrase that comes to mind.
Let's all take a deep breath, shake hands and start the discussion again. Let's list what both sides agree on and what both sides disagree on. The record companies are a rip off. We all agree on that at least (record companies keep your mouths shut for a minute on this). Music is too expensive. Music is great and sure feels like it should be free. The people who create, write, play and make the music should be able to make a reasonable living doing so. If they are really, really good they should have the possibility of getting rich. Everyone who would like to be a musician should have a reasonable shot at it. I hope I'm not too presumptuous in assuming that all of us - Napster supporters and Napster knockers - agree on these points.
Record companies aren't going to go away. Just because they're not jumping on the Internet bandwagon as fast as they can doesn't mean they're not giving it some very serious thought. The major labels are all investing in and helping to develop sites offering secure downloading sales as well as streaming. They've got plenty of money and just because they're capitalist pigs doesn't mean they're stupid - they're just waiting to see what works and what doesn't before they start putting their catalogues on the Web for all to grab. Think about it like this: if you've picked a bunch of apples, sliced them up and made a pie (or conned your mother into making one) you're gonna be pissed off if your buddies come over and scarf it all up right out of the oven before you get a chance to eat a piece yourself. Property is evil and all that but hey, if you go to all the trouble of making a pie you want to have a piece for greedy little old you. Just like the bands and labels want a piece of what they worked for. So get over it. You want to make money don't you? So do the labels and so do the bands.
What I think is going to happen is that technical means will be deployed that watermarks copyrighted music and crawlers will be sent out looking for copies of those songs that haven't been paid for. It's already happening. Free downloading of commercial, copyrighted music is going to be very rare very soon. Streaming music sites will soon vastly overshadow the download sites. Downloading is an awkward mess anyway. Net radio is just about to blast off. Sites with hundreds of specialist 'stations' are springing up all over the place - that make payments to labels, musicians, song writers and others who deserve to get at least a small part of the pie they made. Streaming is easy, clean and neat. Sites like WWW.COM have hundreds of thousands of mainstream songs to listen to and will soon allow you to make your own play lists you can save and listen to again from anywhere you have access to the Web - home, work, car, jogging, etc. As wireless access blasts off you will be able to listen to your own custom net radio play lists. For free if you can handle ads or for a subscription fee like cable TV charges now. It's not going to be absolutely free.
