MP3s Are Not the Devil take on the MP3 sharing debate, some interesting points here; especially about the fears of new technical innovations by the studios/record companies, which when accepted, create HUGE revenue streams. I think the debate about "lost sales" (the article is about far more than just this) needs to be examined sensibly, "lost sales" are due as much to the output of the record companies as they are to fact that people are sharing near perfect copies on the internet. If I thought there were 10 CDs worth buying last year, that doesn't mean that I'll think that there are 10 CDs worth buying next week. Especially if the (mainstream) record companies do not keep up with my tastes. And there is no way that those people who are downloading hundreds of MP3s each month were buying an equivalent number of CDs, two or three years ago, they are simply supplementing their music experience and in doing so increasing their exposure to new (and hopefully) different music, which can only be a good thing.
Posted by james at September 18, 2005 12:21 PM