On 15/06/07, Christopher Woods <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I've downloaded music from allofmp3 in the past because it's just so convenient. Why can't the industries understand that people, above all else, value convenience? I wanted to get another copy of an album I had a long time ago but since mislaid (though I know it's around somewhere, probably scratched to buggery). Jumped onto AOMP3, got a FLAC copy of it. Perfect. Other stuff I've downloaded in MP3 format, in a quality level I've decided upon to balance the cost versus quality.
Yes, if only they actually paid the artists, allofmp3 would be perfect ;) Seriously though, if there's one lesson the music industry ought to take from allofmp3, it's that people will pay when the price is right and the convenience is high. I've said it before, I'll say it again - the labels need to embrace the
customer. Treat them as potential investors, not criminals, offer them a friendly, versatile solution which offers their choice of music via an intuitive interface in their choice of formats - no DRM, of course - and make it fairly priced. Digital music is still not fairly priced.
I agree with you almost entirely, although I'm not sure about the "fairly priced" bit - in the sense that I simply don't have enough data to say one way or another. It's easy to see how the "fair price" for a U2 single might be pretty low (it's been sold a bazillion times before, after all) but what about a more obscure band? What's the record company's fair returns, given their development costs? I just don't have the answer to that.
