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Re: How much would you pay for music?
| quote: | Originally posted by DigiNut
Ok, first off, this is NOT a thread about the evil corporate media empire, so let's try to keep it clean folks. This is just something I've been curious about recently.
Statistics have generally shown that at least until recently, the average person would pay for 6 CDs a year or $90 worth, which amounts to $7.50 a month. Some of us also pay for subscription access to live sets, or priority downloads on soulseek, etc. I believe that most people are willing to pay a certain amount of money for music, but knowing the actual distribution cost (which is nearly zero), most people also expect a lot more bang for their buck.
I also believe that sites like iTunes and beatport have missed the point entirely by charging a certain price per track - think about how much sense it makes to sell an iPod with 40 GB of storage, while simultaneously charging $7500 for that much content (assuming $0.99 per 4 minute, 192 kbps track - I realize that electronic music is longer and that the price is no longer 99 cents).
Now let's hypothetically say that there was a licensed online service, where you could legally download an unlimited amount of music for a certain price. And let's say that there were no restrictions on this music - you could burn it to CDs, share it with other users, and do anything else you want with it. What would you be willing to pay (if anything) per month to use that kind of a service?
This is just out of curiosity for now, I'm not actually planning anything.  |
If the content of such a service contains significant EDM content that I was interested in (meaning mostly trance, house, techno related and sub-genres... my interests don’t lie in D&B, jungle or breaks), I'd pay around 20$ a month or so to have such access.
My biggest quip is often buying CDs where I don’t like all the tracks on it, or don't feel the need to want to have those tracks - hence I don't end up spend the 20-25$ for the CD. Now, I oftentimes buy track singles through online services (Beatport, iTunes, and there's one other I use but forget its name). Though, even these services annoy me, since:
a) w/ the iTunes example, I am limited to only have it actually play on up to a max of 5 computers. That's just annoying for the most part. You gotta set up and authorize whatever comp you'll play it on to have it actually play in the first place - just an EXTRA pain in my ass I never had to concern myself with before.
b) Almost all of these tracks (in my experience) are fucking protected, which annoys the hell outta me to know end, esp. when I like customizing my ID3 tags to my preferences.
c) I have downloaded files before that will be in a WMA format, BUT it will ONLY play on WMP, NOT Winamp. This is fucking annoying as hell. I HATE WMP as an mp3 player. Winamp for life! If I'm going to listen to digital audio files on my comp, I want the availability to use WHATEVER program I wanna use to play it - not be forced into using a designated one.
The Phynn remix I recently downloaded from iTunes of Adagio for Strings came in a m4p format. Which CANNOT be fucking played in Winamp (nor WMP, not that I care) - I am forced to listen in iTunes (I have no issues w/ this program, I use it in addition to Winamp for playing sets and whatnot; I like it's search function far better than Winamp's, but I want the mobility to be able to use Winamp, as that's my most-used application.
When I download music, I want it in mp3 format (not .aif or .wmp or one of the many many millions of new audio forms out there). MP3's work for me, and I feel little reason to want to embrace a new digital media format at this time.
It's those hang-ups above that deter the extent to which I pay for track singles online. They become too much a hassle (from a personal perspective) to warrant me desiring to spend the money on them (yes, even though to be fair to labels and artists I should). Whereas as, if, say, I bought Armin's latest CD... I can listen to that in via the CD, and I can just rip it to my comp and listen to it in the program of my choosing and not be bothered with these protected file hassle/limitations.
A legalized service like Soulseek that contains the electronic content I want I would GLADLY pay into.
I currently pay 5-10$ a month to Slsk just to receive preferential download treatment and I don’t even think twice about it - it's the most worthwhile contribution I make EVERY MONTH!! Never regret it or even think twice about doing it - it's worth it simply put!
-Jem.
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TECHNO IS THE BEST NOISE ON EARTH.
Save Techno - Stop Minimal / Tech-House
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