The way things are now, the
music industry encourages everyone to like a single
type of music - even only a single
artist. Groups that don't necessarily have any
talent are the ones forced upon the
masses - but there's an easy fix for all this.
Right now, the record industry takes all but a few cents on the dollar for each album sold by an artist. Because of this, you have to be hugely popular just to get by - so let's look at our situation.
- Songs are sold through albums, which average $15 for maybe 13 tunes.
- Artists get - from a generous publisher - three cents on the dollar. That's 45 cents an album sold. Many artists get much less than this.
- We have MP3s now. Get the picture?
Artists have their own websites, with very high-speed connections. In a short time, just about everyone in the country will have xDSL, or some other fast line. By eliminating the middle-man - the record industry - artists can charge, say, 5 cents per song and STILL come out ahead of what they'd have gotten through selling CDs. Music costs so little this way, piracy will die out - it's easier just to spend the five cents than to run around Napster searching for a tune. Everybody's happy!
On top of everything, it'll be harder to rise to the top without any talent, and there won't be any more CDs that sell for the one good song that hides on them. Access to the artists' websites? A huge database - free advertising - that lists all the artists that want to be listed, divided up into genres. Perfection.
Of course, it won't happen for another five years - but when it does, it'll be worth it.
Oh, no - I probably should have made this more clear,
mrichich. The nickel would allow you to
download the song, as many times as you wanted. Like an online CD player, not an online
jukebox.