Thoughts on Distribution of MP3s
WM smith just posted a review for Cuba from the silos. This was one of the first bands that I heard about when I got into that whole twang/americana rock thing. Napster did a lot of the distribution work involved in getting that sound to my head. Local bands too. Check out the website. Loads of Mp3s. They also have distribution with Two Big Toes. Neat site. You pretty much pay for the entire album and burn it or can select the tracks you would like.
Do you remember those machines that allowed you to create a CD on the spot of all your favorite tunes? Ok, so it really didn’t last, despite the fact that is WAS a good idea. I have a sneaky feeling that this is the way things might work in the future. The days of free range MP3s are probibly numbered in the future (several years out). Im not sure how yet. I’m all for copyright protection. I also like the wide range of music availible on the web and there probibly is a nice medium in the future where both parties can get along. Here is my ideal plan:
Physical Media: You by an album….it can play it. Sure, there is a chance of hacked hardware, but take the sony playstation. You really got to whack at it to get it to play burned CDs.
Downloading/Copy to a personal player: No problem, but it should require an ultimate server. Either it requires to see my physical media every once in a while, or check in with key server. Sure, you lose some privacy, but technically, you need permission to reproduce a copyright anyway. Allowing your registration over the web or with the actual physical media give you some choice in how this works.
Distribution of Music: Metallica: Ok, these guys have taken the stand of “you guys are stealing our music….burn in hell”. They are probibly right. There licences are strong. If I want to hang out at my buddys house and bring a Metallica CD along. It should work. If I burn a copy…it shouldn’t….unless I leave the physical media (key). Over the net just would not work.
Distribution of Music: Dixie Chicks: Im pretty sure these gals dont really care as much if their songs get swapped. They are not making as much money as you think on CDs. Since the rights belong to the music company, it their game…not the Chicks. You could make the media capable of playing only the first minute, or heck, even making certain tracks availible selectively or at a certain time. At times of heavy rotation, a pirated version of a charting song might work because you log into the server to request it. Might even count as a spin. After a while, it could
Bands like ME:
This is actually better for bands like mine because we would have more control over our music on the web than there is now. Now you just release an MP3 and set it free. It gets out there. MP3.com does a nice job of being a server for too. If, however, the MP3s required registration of some kind, you would know the distribution much better. It would put you in a much better bargining position if you wanted to licence the song. If you wanted to sell it, you could even cancel the song. Just outright retract the ability for it to be played at all. Ok,your thinking…hey thats harsh…but not really.