| Amidst all the huge media press devoted to the | | | | buy and return. |
| subject of the recording industry's difficulty in | | | | Then came CD burner technology. I spent many |
| protecting their interest in the new digital age, one | | | | hours burning all of my friends' CD collections. |
| might wonder - who are these people who | | | | Shortly thereafter came the MP3 file format. |
| download music? What is their motivation? | | | | These services made it easy to download music |
| Presented here, a case study. This is a composite | | | | for free or a nominal service charge, and was not |
| study which blends together the reported | | | | at the tie seen as illegal, so suddenly my music |
| experiences of many music downloaders - the | | | | collection no longer involves CDs at all anymore. |
| study is true to a large part of this set, but not | | | | So where does this leave me now? Well, I'm in |
| accurate to any specific case, with names | | | | my late 30s, making a six-figure income, and I like |
| removed: | | | | a huge variety of musical genres. I could easily |
| What follows is a short history of my economic | | | | spend $100 per month on music and not bat an |
| experience of music and a simple business plan | | | | eye, but I still don't. The record labels have |
| proposed for the labels to recapture my wallet. | | | | alienated me by suddenly treating me as a criminal |
| Back in the old days, when I bought my first CD | | | | for the cost of doing business with them. So, |
| player, I went out and replicated my sizable vinyl | | | | what can they do for me that would convince |
| record collection at $12-$13 per album. This took | | | | me to give them my money again? It's really |
| all of my spare cash as a struggling student with | | | | quite simple! |
| no loans. Over the course of a year, I bought | | | | A reasonable service at a reasonable price, like |
| more than eighty CDs. It was hard, but I hated | | | | the Russian sites do. I select the quality and |
| records and tapes because they wouldn't be | | | | quantity of the songs and pay a reasonable price |
| portable. Back then, the local rumors had it that | | | | for downloading them. The bottom line here is |
| the price of CDs was inflated to cover the cost | | | | that I'll pay up to $4 for a CD encoded at 256k |
| of manufacturing in the new media format and | | | | VBR with no obnoxious DRM interferences - no |
| would eventually come down below record prices | | | | less quality and no more money. |
| because they were considerably cheaper to | | | | Give me FTP access to a full catalog with all of |
| make. | | | | the labels in one place. They should be high quality |
| Five years later, the prices didn't go down and I | | | | MP3s, verified, DRM-free, properly tagged, and in |
| had the misfortune of my CD collection, then at | | | | a format that guarantees I can port them. How |
| over 200 albums, having been stolen from my | | | | much would I be willing to pay for this, well for a |
| ghetto apartment. That was more than $2500 | | | | ballpark number figure $2 to $4 for 10 songs. |
| and I was still pretty poor due to the early 90s | | | | That works out to 20 to 40 cents per song. You |
| recession affecting my industry. The upside was | | | | could also bill based on bandwidth per megabyte |
| that stolen CDs were so valuable then because | | | | downloaded. |
| there was a budding used CD market in the | | | | I promise that this would keep me, and most |
| major cities. Once record stores started selling | | | | music listeners, from downloading music "illegally". I |
| used CDs in quantity, I stopped buying any new | | | | might give some of this to my friends for free, |
| CDs altogether. This is the early 90's and I already | | | | but that is usually stuff that they wouldn't have |
| dropped out of the record label's direct market. | | | | bought anyway. Burning a CD of songs for my |
| Here I was, an early 20's kid that was so in love | | | | friends is fair use to me, as it always has been to |
| with music that I would spend the better part of | | | | the public at large. RIAA, I haven't given you |
| my expendable cash on CDs and yet I dropped | | | | money in over 10 years; that is a huge failure on |
| right off of their books because I could buy an | | | | your part. |
| album for $9 if I waited a month after it came | | | | Win me back. It's not that hard and it's not too |
| out. | | | | late. I am the consumer and you are supposed to |
| As I matured in my career, I started making | | | | be serving me. Make me a happy to do business |
| serious money, but I still wouldn't buy new CDs. I | | | | with you, and I'll open up my wallet for you; but |
| was used to paying between $6 and $9 and | | | | treat me like your enemy, and I will be a wolf |
| there was no way I would go back. I probably | | | | poaching your chickens with impunity. The choice |
| missed out on a lot of music, because I was | | | | is yours to make. |
| limiting my selection to what college kids would | | | | |