Reply #12: home taping is killing music! [View All]

[maxsolomon]

was once the cry of the recording industry.

but somehow, it didn't die.

read about the future: http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/technology_internetcritic/2007/10/how-much-is-a-c.html

How much is a CD worth to you, and, bigger picture, how much is the effort musicians put into making a CD worth?

Those provocative questions -- a direct challenge to the evolving Internet and cultural norm of treating music as a free commodity -- are posed by Radiohead, the critically-acclaimed English band, in making its new disc, "In Rainbows," available for download Oct. 10 at whatever price you want to pay.

And with this brilliant move, the band strips away all the rationales people come up with for downloading music, free, from file-sharing sites or for getting friends to burn CDs for them.

You can't say your song grab is a blow against the evil record companies, because Radiohead, despite selling millions of discs, no longer has a record company.

You can't say they're millionaires and don't need the money because, whatever their economic status, they're being stupendously decent about the whole thing and to not pay them something would make you a cad and a thief.

You can't say the price is unfair, because the price is whatever you want to pay. "It's up to you," says the page that confronts you when you click on the question mark after being greeted by the blank price box.

"No, really. It's up to you," says the second page, if you click on the question mark again.