Friday, March 17, 2006

Music License

RIAA: Who are the Pirates?


This article takes a little bit to get to the meat, but once it does, it suggests something I have said in the past, "Why does the music industry just not make what you purchase a license and let you select the format you want to recieve the content associated with that content."

What do I mean? If you bought a 'license' for a group of songs from your favorite artist. Then you decided that you wanted them on CD and as MP3s? The music label, as they would be providing the MP3s, could put a digital fingerprint in the file that lets them know who's license it is. Finding the sources for piraters would be SO much easier, and most people would not need to pirate, as they would be able to get music in the format they want and know they could replace it if need be.

Infact, the music label could start a whole side business of processing license transfers. Want to sell your music you dont like anymore? The music industry charges a small fee and transfers your license to whoever you designate. They not only made money on the original sale, but now they are making money on the resale (which they hate now, cause people are selling music and they dont get a cut).

As stated in the article mentioned, they would also make money if you lost your CD and need to replace it. Or, say you are starting to fill up your MP3 player (ie, iPod) and want to make more room on it by having your music in the latest compression format (ie, going from MP3 to AAC)? Do you want to spend the time converting all of your tracks? The music label could provide you with the converted format for a small fee (again, making money on music they already sold). AND they again get to place a digital marker in the file so they can track what the original license was for tracking pirates.

The funny thing is, they could end up having some people spend more money on these services that come after the sale than they would ever make selling them CDs. I also feel, because the choice is with the consumer, the consumer would feel that it is more fair, because they get to decide.

Just a thought.

LDJ

technorati tags: , ,

No comments: