Sinister: Home Downloading Is Killing Home Taping Is Killing Music

[Brian Pennington]

Dear Sinister,
	Odd we've never discussed this before. Isabel you seem to be 
quoting posts which I did not receive without actually quoting them 
in your letters, so if someone has taken this tack I apologize but it 
didn't make it to my inbox. But I think you can draw a nice bundle of 
parallels between Napster and our old friend the Cassette.
	Both of them give us a capacity we did not have prior to 
their inception. Cassettes allowed us to make custom mixes for 
friends, thereby exposing them to new music and encouraging them to 
spend more money. Yayyyy capitalism. Napster allows us to test out 
tracks by bands we're curious about before we consider spending money 
on them. Cassettes allowed us to make copies of recordings which were 
not made available to the general public. Napster does also.
	Both can be abused. Some people have been known to copy 
entire albums on cassette. In fact the record industry once feared 
that this would spell its demise. Yes someone needs to buy an album 
before they can copy it onto a cassette first, but MP3s need a CD to 
be ripped from in order to be made just as cassettes need a source. 
Perhaps Napster is a more convincing because it is closer to hi-fi 
and it's easier and quicker.
	Okay, and some rumor control. Warner Brothers did *not* buy 
out Napster. Napster already entered into an agreement with 
Bertelsmann, so Warner would probably have to buy them out in order 
to do this. Napster *is* planning on switching to a fee-based service 
as early as Summer, and I for one am willing to pay if they have a 
fair system of paying artists whose songs are downloaded.
	Peer-to-peer file-sharing as a distribution for music is not 
going to go away, even if Napster does. I'm not trying to say CDs 
will be irrelevant anytime soon, but Napster or its possible 
successors will be around, and in the end they will not be free. The 
music industry had a record year last year, people *are* spending 
money on music like they used to. More than they used to even. In a 
high-bandwidth world, a free Napster would definately affect some 
bottom lines, but more likely than not the same 5 labels will be 
present in whatever final form Napster or its successor takes. I just 
hope the consumer doesn't get screwed in the process, like they 
usually do. The consumer and artists certainly stand a good chance of 
coming out ahead.
	Incidentally, to anyone who's tried unsuccessfully to 
download B&S rarities from me, please be patient. I apologize for my 
slow connection, but it's the best I can offer without fear of legal 
reprisal.

-- 
Brian Pennington, aka Mick McMick | cellophanesky at mac.com | ICQ# 39021436
Sandcastle Records: <http://www.indiepages.com/sandcastle/>
the Cellophane Sky:<http://home.earthlink.net/~cellophanesky/the/index.html>
"Better a tear of truth than smiling lies." - Duncan Browne
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