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Another call for a celestial jukebox
Don Tapscott, co-author of "Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything," in today's San Jose Merc: It's time to treat music as a service rather than a good.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs kicked off a debate last week on whether the digital songs his company sells online should continue to be encased in technology to prevent endless copying. The issue is a red herring. What the music industry should discuss, instead, is how to move toward a smarter business model that offers music for rent rather than purchase.
In a restructured Internet-friendly music industry, consumers would no longer download songs at a fixed price per tune, but would instead pay a moderate amount each month to listen to an unlimited number of tunes streamed to them over the Internet. I'd happily pay a few dollars per month to get access anytime, on any device, anywhere, to any music ever recorded.
Provocative proposal, but I don't think we're close to being there yet.
February 27, 2007 at 11:49 PM in Music | Permalink
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Isn't this what Napster/Rhapsody and other Microsoft-DRM based music stores have tried? Albeit, the DRM leaves a big stink, but the fact is that given the choice between "monthly subscription for access to everything" and iTunes' "pay per track to keep forever", consumers have shown a pretty clear preference for the latter.
I have no doubt that the music industry would love people to "rent" rather than "own". But people, for whatever reason, want to "own" and not "rent" - and nothing the music industry has done has been able to change that mindset.
Posted by: Eric | Feb 28, 2007 8:49:07 AM
And how would you play this rented music in your car or on an outdoor outing? Artists should be paid by those who want to own the products of their labors. Want to see a Picasso without paying for it? Go to a museum displaying his artwork. Don't want to pay to listen to Bob Dyan? Find a radio station playing his songs.
Posted by: Doug | Mar 1, 2007 8:15:30 AM
