Mittwoch, 6. März 2002

How much is a song worth? Lots of things going on in P2P land. Only having a 56K dialup at home keeps me away from all of that - although I did try limewire on my iBook a couple of times...sheesh just too slow. So anyway, on the one hand we have the P2P networks where you can get music for nothing (if you have the bandwidth and can pay the online charges) and on the other hand we have the music companies trying to sell the CD for lots of $$. Actually a single song on a CD costs around 1$ (give or take). Thought experiment Imagine a record company brings out the newest CD of some popular artist for 5$ (that's right the whole CD). Will that CD still be swapped on Gnutella? What if the CD costs 1$? I bet there would be no difference to today. It is not about the price of music, it's about the ease (I don't have to go to the record store) and the sport (the collection syndrome - "I gotta have that"), and the fact that it costs money (however little). And the answer? The music companies need to understand that they can never compete if they charge for the service and music. They should be setting up their own P2P networks where registered users can exchange the companies music for free. They should then be looking after the people that use their P2P network. Forming a community. Setting up an easy to use client-app that provides a 1-stop link to buying the music the user is currently swapping, add meta-data information that allows the client-app to provide addtional links to merchandizing, tickets to concerts, DVDs ... Just a thought.

One week of 3 children with stomach flu (gastroenteritis to you and me k-parents) - throwing up each night and all the other "nice" things. I have had enough! And need some sleep! Sorry - had to get that off.