And sure, you wouldn’t *turn down* the money if it happens — and it does add up. I just don’t think it’s going to happen.

1 People who know nothing about the workings of a particular industry are the first to say how it should be run.

2 Good things rarely come out of leaked corporate memos. Warner and other large publishers probably run all sorts of ideas around internally. When one of these proposals gets out to the blogotwats everyone feels the need to offer their opinion (see point 1). OTOH, sometimes these things get leaked on purpose to gauge public reaction but that just brings us back to point 1 again.

Content publishing of any type is a very strange industry. Most product will never recoup costs, but the big sellers cover the rest. You get better odds in Vegas. When you know how much one solid gold hit can be worth you do everything you can legal or not to get it in front of potential buyers. Oh and guess what? Running an indie/small publisher is really no different except your marketing budget is too small for hookers & blow so you end up sending a few cases of beer and 10% of a product order to your distributor for free instead.

As to a tax/surcharge/whathaveyou, this can be good for a publisher as long as you have good accountants and lawyers and thats why its good for the majors but not so much for the little guys.

US$5/mo does not sound like much but it adds up quickly. But you can only get a slice of that pie if your lawyer is at the table to negotiate for you and your accountant can work up a statement of how big your slice should be.

If this sort of thing goes through I am definitely going to see how much work it would take to get my microscopically small share I’d be “due” for my own records and records I publish. If you are involved in this strange business with anything but the purist artistic motives (or you just sample other peoples stuff and dont have a musical/legal leg to stand on) you’d be foolish not to want some of this revenue if it comes to pass.

Another problem that he will face is the US anti-trust and cartel laws. I’m not an expert but I suspect that this is a major barrier…

Hank talked about ways in which the industry didn’t really get selling *records*, either, because they don’t know anything about music. Doh. ;)

I think the majors got the “adapt or die” thing. The problem is Warner being so far off the mark with this particular adaptation. Oh, well — I expect they got the message. And I think the majors now covet the kind of love (and money), say, NIN just got.

In fact, to me the challenge is for the “minors” to make their play in a big way, before the majors catch on.

In a way, I don’t think digital distribution was their’s to blow in the first place. That’s why Apple stepped in with iTunes and shocked the hell out of the music industry. It’s because people in the music biz AREN’T in the tech biz. Apple IS. I feel like it’s the same thing in alot of other business sectors- where computers and digital technology just turned everything upside down. Apple saw the potential because it’s in that sector.

But with these big music labels- they aren’t in the tech business, so they don’t want to have to do tech things. It’s like someone having to learn a foreign language when they’re in their 40s. Sure there are alot of good reasons and insentives to ‘make the transition’ or ‘invest in the skills’, but when it comes down to it people are lazy. If the majors can just slap some taxes on some thing somewhere- they wind up getting theirs. Industries are like large, lumbering dinosaurs. They aren’t fit for fast maneuvering and radical change. They’ll just go existinct, eventually.

Until then, they’ll just grab at whatever quick fix or stopgap solution keeps the cash flowing. This is why you see things like this, and other equally strange proposals like taxing CD-Rs or other blank media. They’ll throttle p2p traffic. They’ll implement half-baked and flawed DRM. They’ll do all this stuff because it’s easier for them. Meanwhile, we all get screwed on the legitimate and fair uses for these things. And the people working at major music and movie companies won’t care that they are stifling genuine innovation and technological advancement of the human race because they still have their 6 figure salary. It’s just natural to follow the path of least resistance. Eventually they will adapt or die.

The music industry has known for 15 years times were changing. The MP3 format has been around since 1993 and widely used for sharing music since 1995. Napster was shut after a lengthy court battle all the way back in 2001. The Microsoft Darknet paper was released 6 years ago in 2002.

What I’m saying is the music industry likes to paint themselves as blameless victims. All the time sueing Napster, sueing grannies,teenagers and dead people, sueing pirate bay, trying to block Russia’s entrance to the WTO.

All I can see is an industry that has not meet consumer needs and habits. An industry that has consistently lost money for musicians for 15 years. An industry unwilling to change regardless of discomforting facts like those in the Darknet paper. An industry so lucky that its was given the means to generate profit from 50% of all homes and offices in the western world…. and they blew it.

I think the music industry knows they have lost the battle with MP3. I also think they know MP3 is only a transistional technology and the real future market is in streaming audio. I think that all this litagation and bluster is solely to strenghten their hand when it comes to negotiating streaming music rights.

Either that or they really are that ineffectual and musicians and consumers have every right to be up in arms.

To J-Chot I do buy this “digital revolution” but I can’t understand why your music is free either. Maybe you should talk to your record company and ask them to sort it out. :)