Just want to take amoment to reflect on the vissitudes of the ditigal music marketplace ...mostly, the relationship between major music publishers, distibutors of digital music and ultimate consumers. While digital distributors (e.g.) i-tunes, yahoo songs, have accounted for more than a billion downloads on either a pay per song or subscription basis, millions of consumers are still accessing and downloading their music via free sites such as limewire, etc. Indeed, there exists a huge population who have not paid for music for several years.
Although the music companies have successfully lobbied for legislation extending existing copyright protection to include ditigal disribution, it seems unlikely that the proliferation of free downloads is destined to slow down anytime soon. As these two major worlds collide, what will be the resultant middlegroud, if any? What, if anything, can regulators do given the confluence of factors affecting their ability to police end users or distributors who are now capable of operating from countries that provide safe havens?
(Two recent articles look at these issues.However at the moment, I am unable to link to blog. I will post as soon as possible)
Importantly, is the music industry, through their efforts to impact the distribution of music to protect thier long term domaine, undermining the market value of the good-will which music companies have spent enormous resources to build up and perpetuate? Is this an act of self expropriation of its assets?
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