Re: your friendly correspondent from the US presents: Free Sampling Killed by Court of Appeals

Matthew Astley wrote:
> > Has ownership ever been pushed so far and enforced so rigidly
> > before?  Or is this something special to our times?
> 
> Since how long has there been big money in ownership, and an even
> larger amount of perceived money?
> 
> Suppose the bottom were to fall out of the music market and your
> average teenager was perfectly content listening to beats generated
> entirely at random by (e.g.) a piece of public domain software.
> 
> Would the lawyers leave music alone?  Seems likely.  Would the cost be
> too high? I think so.
> 
> Hopefully you can rescue a useful idea from under the smothering
> cynicism and fuzzy thinking.

So, what we really need to defeat/weaken the current record industry
is the equivalent of EasyJet or MegaBus -- cheap but cheerful popular
music sold at rock-bottom prices ... the same kind of stuff that
already fills the charts, in popular formats (CD), only much cheaper.
I wonder if this could work.

On Pho a long while back I also mentioned the idea of having a crack
team of artists/technicians doing cover versions of songs almost as
soon as they were released (or even before if it is getting airplay).
So you could buy the latest Madonna single, or a cheaper Madonnalike
version.  The -alike versions may even end up with their own
characteristic style and end up being interesting and collectible in
their own right [*].  I think that idea scared a few people on Pho
(probably they can legislate against that eventually).  This may be
the closest you can get to real competition in the music biz, though.

Anyone know someone who might want to run with these ideas?  Or maybe
even someone who might write an opinion piece somewhere that gets good
circulation, who could put the ideas out there?  (no credit required)

Jim

[* Personally, I think it would be a lot of fun to create -alike
singles with a short deadline.  It is a good creative stimulus -- the
aim is to get close but not perfect -- and the imperfections add
character.  It is a much freer creative environment. ]

-- 
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