Think about it for a second, how much is enough? 1 Million, 100 Million, 1 Trillion? Both personally and as a business or corporation how much is enough? Can you accept a specific number and focus on humanity rather then squeezing out another penny.
I don’t have a tv and watch a lot of shows/documentaries on Hulu. I was recently enjoying the film Mixtape, Inc. that discusses the undergrounds of hip-hop and remixing copyright material for a profit. The record labels and their MBA bean counters are always looking at their projections and missed sales due to mixtapes and illegal online downloads rather then accepting $XXX Millions and trying to do some research and development into how to be more profitable. Can you say, Why do the People Making the Decisions Never Understand the Problem?
You should checkout vyemusic.com it’s a “search engine” for music. Remember that thing called Google, it’s like that as it scraps the net for content and organizes it but doesn’t host anything…so you can listen, preview, and download music that vyemusic finds. Don’t worry, under the DMCA as long as vyemusic.com removes any links the RIAA asks and since it doesn’t host any music, in should be in the clear. It’s also interesting because it was created by a 16 year old who happens to have a Dad who is a lawyer.
It makes me think of the concept of change, think about a large profitable work horse of a business. You build up this mega monster that can do so much in profit, but you just feed it enough to keep it alive.
Soon find yourself losing it all at an accelerated pace due to competition. Understand that if you are making $$$ at something, someone is going to try and beat you at it because they want a cut of the action. Your work horse that was once a profitable business is now a sinking ship because you did not upgrade it for the battle that has begun. While you were racking in the money hand over fist, your competition has be focusing on your weak spots and improving and build a monster of it’s own. Your competition just bought a gun to a sword fight and is ready for battle. Understand that you need to be always moving forward, reinventing and trying new things.
People are so scared of change, but change is the only constant we have in this world. To help prove my point visually, watch a clip from Caprica. This scene shows the CEO who just announced to the world that rather then charging for thier product (ie. holoband) that they will give it away for free. This concept of change related to Caprica just made that work horse that produced 60% net profit of his company into a sinking ship. The CEO was going to be voted out of his own company at this meeting, but he has another idea and approach for this battle (ie. Research and Development of a Project…).
Okay, so how does this relate to the music business, startup, and how much is enough. Remember Napster back in the day, kids downloading all that music for free. Record labels wanting their piece of the pie. It wasn’t until Steve Jobs steps in and announces online buying of music. The demand for digital music was there, but there was no model or company that offered up a LEGAL way to do it. In todays world, bands like Girl Talk who remix music would have to pay over 12 Million an album to get access to those 10 or 30 seconds of a song. Just to give you an idea of how many songs and timeframe take a look at the wikipedia entry for one of his albums. The world needs an outlet or way to pay a fair royalty for a song that is remixed.
So what is fair, well that gets to the point, how much is enough? How much is a song really worth, is it $0.99 on iTunes? Is some music worth more today when its new and fresh then 10 years ago. Is that Ace of Base album still worth $9.99? Do record labels and artists who make it to that 1% really need millions of dollars?
What are you thoughts on the subject and how can we fix this or will this battle continue to go on and the RIAA continues to sue everyone and their mother in hopes of getting a fraction of a pie back from it’s sinking ship.
One last thought to leave you with is Bill Gates. Think about it for a second, he built and launched Microsoft which charges for licenses to it’s software. This monster of a company has made so much money, yet Bill’s day to day now is in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where he helps others. So did that profit from a copy of Windows that you bought go towards helping the poor or by pirating a copy give you cash as you are poor. (ie. pay what you think it’s worth can afford)
Popularity: 1% [?]
Be The First To Comment
Related Post
Please Leave Your Comments Below