my passport photo • about me

React Publish your own item

Blogroll Jim Romenesko's Media News Jorn Barger's Robot Wisdom Doc Searls Dave Winer Cory Doctorow Dave McPherson Travelers Diagram Ye Olde Phart Blog Sisters Dan Gillmor Paul Andrews Dave Copeland Ft. Boise The Magnificent Melting Object Wayne Robins Tom Poe Memepool Slashdot Shell Extension City Daypop Top 40 Links ( blogdex ) Metafilter peterme.com FollowMe Here kalilily time Burningbird Plastic Judy Watt Obscure Store plep wood s lot The Shifted Librarian New World Disorder CyberJournalist: News Weblogs p h o t o g r a p h i c a . o r g Mirror project n e w s  w e  c a n  u s e Microcontent News E-Media Tidbits Phil Agre

by Sheila Lennon
'Bottom-up' journalism from the pros

June 13, 2002 • Today's weblog

The end of buying a musical pig in a poke: File sharing: Innocent until proven guilty: An economist says music piracy should be hurting the recording industry, but it isn't -- and he doesn't know why. At Salon.

Here's why, according to me: A lot of file-sharing involves replacing vinyl that melted, cassettes that unraveled. A lot more involves music you won't find at your local chain, and probably won't find at your independent hole in the wall, either. And still more involves music sharing by people who weren't buying anyway, and now are listening to more music but still not buying any.

File-sharing brings all music to the fore: You can download a tune, listen to it, and delete it if you don't like it. But if you do like it, you're likely to want more by the new-to-you musician. It's not all available on somebody's else's drive, especially tunes by musicians you hadn't known about.

So you order a CD online and it comes in a coupla days. And you're happy: You have new music, exactly what you wanted, something you would never have heard on the radio, in a high-quality format, you enjoyed anticipating its arrival, you don't feel ripped off.
Link to this item | Comment