How will musicians live if music is free? The question is often asked, but I suspect it is the wrong question. It is irrelevant in the context where it's usually asked.
The real question is: How will paid music compete with free music?
Of the people with the skill to make good music, some fraction will be inclined to do so for free. It may be a small fraction (or it may not), but it will be non-zero. In a world of zero-cost copying, storage and distribution, even a small fraction is sufficient to provide all the music one could listen to in a lifetime.
In some ways, it's similar to text on the web. There are some paid services, but there are just too many free websites. For most people, the bother associated with payment (or even just registration) is not worthwhile; after all - there are plenty of free sites I haven't read yet.
So, why bother with iTunes? There are plenty of songs on iRate I haven't heard yet...
What advantage, then, to paying for music?
In an earlier entry, I listed lack of censorship, background noise during recording, nurturing new talent and financial rewards for artists as things that an Internet-based free music regime wouldn't provide very well. But most of these aren't really things that an individual consumer would care about much (perhaps with the exception of the background noise), and therefore not things that you can charge the consumer for. Those who do care about them can probably think of better mechanisms for them than paying per-copy for music.
Perhaps paid-for music might be higher quality, but I doubt it: this same argument applies to all skill classes, including the top. Some fraction of the best musicians will be inclined to produce free music.
Perhaps paid-for music might be more timely, but often timely music is judged by its message rather than its quality, so there would be a larger pool of musicians; besides, this is exactly the kind of music one might want to publish for free, so that the message reaches a wider audience.
⇦ PyLevy statistical significance | ⇨ Microsoft and best practices? Never! |
