People speak of the Long Tail, that the internet will allow sales of low-popularity items which (in the aggregate) can amount to quite large volumes. Various special-interest niches, or back-catalogue, things that wouldn't find enough customers to pay for the space in a physical shop - but disk space is cheaper.
I don't know; one of the most important competitors of the record companies is their own back-catalogue. If it were available, they would have to keep making the music better and better. Now, this would probably be a good thing for the music and the listeners, but it would involve effort. It would also involve more risk. Most likely, hits would come further and further apart as the size of the back-catalogue grew.
It would be ever so much more convenient (and profitable) if the back-catalogue just went away.
Currently, a fair chunk of the back-catalogue is somewhat available. With care, vinyl, tapes or CDs last; books even more so, for print. Under current laws and technology, people can sell these to each other as their tastes change.
With DRM, the back-catalogue would just go away. They could pull last year's songs when this year's come out. If one of them just happened to be the best song in the world, well that's too bad.
For this to work, they must also eliminate independent non-DRM music. This is usually done under the label "closing the analogue hole". They claim that as long as people can record sound, they will pirate their songs. What they really fear is that people will record their own. (next post)
On a slightly positive note, Hollywood seems to be partnering up with Microsoft to do this; and we know what happens to Microsoft partners. Especially when they hand their air supply to Microsoft like this. Microsoft isn't selling out to Hollywood, it's doing this for its own (demented?) purposes.
Not that a Microsoft monopoly in movies would be any more palatable than the Hollywood kind.
Update: coincidentally, just two or three days later, I've come across DRM Chops off the Long Tail. I guess it's just an idea whose time has come...
⇦ Virtual Collectible Card Game | ⇨ Not to go gently into the night |
