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I don't think the Music industry realises the cliff it is sitting on. Their sales were going down steeply, then iTunes and it's spinoffs started selling the music again. Now they are trying to raise the prices, and essentially drive off more customers. They don't seem to understand the concept of discounting, where if you sell something for less, you'll sell more of it.
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I think that the music industry understand full well the economics of their business. The problem is that they are increasingly in a no-win situation. New forms of media delivery are at odds with the old industry structure. There are many employees in that old structure for whom they need a soft landing. Imagine the machine that once brought music to the market: warehousemen, marketing people, logistical people. They should just be out in the cold? “The internet is here, Bob. Take your years of hard work and dreams of retirement and get the F&*^ out.” I know that we cannot take care of everyone, but I am just pointing out one reality that the music industry may trying to handle.
And just want wanting to pay for your one song? You have to realize that it should cost more for one song than the price of a cd divided by the number of songs. Take out the costs of old industry delivery and just look at the new industry cost (whatever it costs to run an internet delivery business) plus the profits. The unit price for buying one song should be far more expensive than the cost of buying several bunched in a group.
Say that I am an artist and I have 100 songs. You say the cost and profit average for the 100 units is $2 so you should only pay $2 for that mega hit that you like. That is insane and unfair. That mega hit has to carry the business. It must fund development of new material and cover losses on ones that don’t work. This is no different in any other business.
My point is that the music industry is struggling with new realities. They are aware of the economics, but they are just dealing with hard business issues. Be upset and argue with actions and policies, but don’t attribute them to ignorance.
"My point is that the music industry is struggling with new realities. They are aware of the economics, but they are just dealing with hard business issues. Be upset and argue with actions and policies, but don’t attribute them to ignorance."
New Realities. Yes, living in the past is a good way to maintain a buisness is by staying in the past, not the current and the future.
While they may be aware of the economics, they are not making the correct desision. The reason Napster and other sites were so successful is because people could get the music for less then buying a whole CD. The new stores such as iTunes sold the individual tracks, and saved people money. They purchased this way because it was legal and cost less then the whole CD, but the music industry still got its money.
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