[silk] Re-architecting the music business

[Udhay Shankar N]

Robert Frost once claimed that poetry would 
"begin in delight and end in wisdom".

I read a very interesting paper by (most 
probably, a different) Robert Frost that I 
thought might be made to fit this sniff test.

http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue12_8/frost/

<beginning>

Rearchitecting the music business: Mitigating music piracy by cutting out
the record companies.

</beginning>

<ending>

A key assumption in this presentation is that 
the costs associated with the current model of 
oligopolistic intermediation ­ as well as the 
artist lock–in that is its consequence ­ is at 
the root of the crisis in music distribution. 
The problem cannot be fixed without a major 
effort to break the grip of the music 
distributors over the system. If that rings a 
death knell for the music companies, so be it. 
Musicians and listeners, the core creators of 
value in the music business would gain 
enormously and a measure of economic justice would be attained.

</ending>

Irrespective of my flights of whimsy, however, the paper is recommended.

Udhay

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((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))