Letter to News.Com Journalist Re: article on future of music industry
Re Free vs. fee: Underground still thrives
addressed to John Borland
“the the major record labels are finally being tested in their long-standing
theory that an easy, appropriately priced legal service can compete with
file-trading networks.”
NOT! Any statements on this behalf by the major record labels have been
entirely hypocritical - they have fought the emergence of a model like this
tooth and nail for years, and it is only Apple, with its enormous leverage
and incredibly saavy marketing muscle, that has dragged them kicking and
screaming into the modern era - every other company that has attempted to
provide an “easy, appropriately priced legal service”, dating back to almost
the dawn of music on the Internet (such as with Imagine Radio, and in more
recent years, webcasters facing the “no three songs by the same artist in a
row” rule) has been crippled and rendered consumer unfriendly by the
ludicrous restrictions imposed on it by the music industry (which has
resembled an ostrich with its head stuck in the sand, more than anything
else, for the past few years).
It is the USER COMMUNITY that has been saying this for years - make it easy
and inexpensive enough for the end user, and the convenience of being able
to simply get what you want, how you want, instead of having to deal with
the inconvenience, inconsistent quality and moral/legal hazards of “free”
music. It is just common sense. The software industry realized this a long
time ago - when was the last time you heard of Microsoft threatening to sue
individual end users for piracy, or to invade people’s machines and disable
illegal software?
Music lovers everywhere owe Apple a debt of gratitude - I’m still amazed
that they managed to launch the service on the terms they did… I’d love to
have been a fly on the wall in some of their negotiating sessions… I hope
someone rights a book!
Regards,
Thomas Leavitt
