Very reasonable.

Maybe people buy a song after they've downloaded it, or maybe they download
it after they've bought it, or maybe this is two completely different set of
people. In any case, we probably won't know for another 25 years...like
anything else, it is probably a reasonable mix of the possibilities.

Just as, in this low-margin scenario, a few lost sales can make a big dent,
a few sales made from cost-free marketing can also add tremendously to the
bottom line. I'm not necessarily advocating for this simplistic solution,
but it can be reasonably argued that file-trading is revenue-neutral or
better.

They want a piece of that.

That's the point. In light of today's technology, and tomorrow's, the
existing entertainment companies can stick with old business models that may
or may not be working or they can devise a way to profit and prosper.
Darwinian economics.




"Mike Rivers" wrote in message
news:znr1086345367k@trad...

In article
writes:

One thing that is undeniable: track Big Champagne and you
will see that each day, week, month, year...the songs that are traded
the
most are sold the most. The songs that sell, according to the RIAA's own
numbers, are the songs that are traded the most.

I would expect that, but not for the reason that people download a
song then buy it (which would be a good thing).

While "they" want us to think that downloading unpaid-for copies of
music is running rampant, most people still get their music the old
fashioned way. They hear a song on the radio, on TV, or in an
elevator, and they go out and buy the disk. Like most businesses based
on massive unit quantities of sales (like gasoline, for instance)
there is only a small profit on each sale. Losing just a few percent
of the potential customers can make a big dent in the books.

The downloaders who don't pay for popular music do have an effect on
the bottom line, but still the music doesn't get popular enough for
them to notice and be able to find easily on the net unless it's sold
in reasonable numbers. So in essence, existing sales are advertising
for no-profit downloads. They want a piece of that.



--
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