NYT article: File Sharing Debates.....

[Dr Mordrid]

by David Pogue. The last 3 paragraphs of this article probably made the RIAA members spin like a collective top...

NYT article....

What a concept

Dr. Mordrid

[Joel]

Meanwhile, another reader noted that, “Our real problem isn't here. It's in Asia. My brother just came back from China with maybe 20 copies of ‘X-Men 2,’ ‘Matrix Reloaded’ and ‘Terminator 3.’ These aren’t crummy DiVX copies-- they are gorgeous DVD-R, with nice motion menus, fake covers, ISBN numbers, the whole thing. You'd swear that they were the real thing. So, why are we going after our domestic kids in colleges and high schools...when our real pirates are in China?”

Because they are easier targets.

Joel

[GNEP]

Finally, this intriguing note arrived from a guy who’s both a software engineer and a musician in two bands: “It’s my belief that music CDs will soon be given away free. The CD will become promotional material to advertise a band’s live shows and merchandise for sale. Space inside the CD cover could even be sold for advertising.

My brother's a cellist, and according to him this is pretty much exactly the business model of classical music these days - basically musicians and orchestra/ensemble managers & conductors make 99% of their money through live performance, and only about 1% through recordings.

Also with the improvements in recording equipment (and reduction in cost of subsequent CD mastering/pressing) you are starting to see a greater and greater proportion of concerts recorded - heading he thinks to nearly 100% of all performances within a few years. So the number of potential material available as recorded music increases exponentially while the total amount of money made from it stays low (or even decreases). An odd time to live in this "Information Age"

As far as I can tell though he doesn't like the "record every bar 20 times and then stitch the best ones together in editing & post-production, correcting small leftover mistakes where needed digitally" method of recording, and much prefers the "living" part of real unadulterated performance and the reproduction of exactly that. Not surprising given his speciality in baroque music on authentic(ish) instruments and more lately his re-ignited interest in performing Jazz

I asked him about a year ago what he thought (as an artist making his living through music) of downloadable music. He said "it's great... we just need FAR better quality than mp3s and other lossy compressed formats can give" (well, I added the techy bits on formats ).