the bottled water biz model (Score 2, Insightful)

The reason why something like this would prevail (at least in the meantime), despite the existence of P2P networks, is that such a venture would not be marketing music, but rather the service of providing easy, quick, and safe access to music.

Professor Lessig has mentioned this casually before, its the bottled water business model. Water is essentialy a zero cost commodity, yet the vending of repackaged water is a phenomenally successful business. Consumers, faced with a conveinent, glitzy, and higher quality product will, do often choose it over a free alternative.

If the record companies, a consortium of artists (or some mediary via licensing) were to offer:

- a simplistic/transparent interface

- an immense and highly/easily searchable library

- secure high-speed downloads

- cd quality encoding

- reasonably pricing (subscription or a quarter a song works)

- a guaranteed lack of virii, spyware or drm

and maybe some extras

- bonuses for signing up friends - buy 5 get 1 free - anywhere streaming of your purchases

they *WOULD* be raking it in. No questions. But the Recording Industry isn't in the music business. They are in the CD business.
I couldn't agree with Janis more. Every person I talk to says they would snatch up a subscription instantly. This must happen.