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acroyearA beautiful essay on the state of online music download stores today, Microsofts coming furray into that market (once again turning a large number of partners into competitors), and how things should pan out in the near future...
Best line, describing MTV's online store: "If their music store turns out anything like their cable channel, it won't have any actual music on it."
For myself, I have little to no interest in those stores and what they offer, because they all off what to me is the same crap. Only the best selling stuff is allowed to say selling the market, and the truth is that its an utterly wasted opportunity.
Its an online store, where there's no shelf-space, no shipping weight requirements, no problem of stuff not being sorted properly because in the christmas rush, the lazy-ass retail staff never bothered to clean up after the ignorant customers rampaged the place.
Its not the place to buy Pink Floyd. Its not the place to by The Beatles. That stuff still sells in stores (and at top prices; neither group has dropped to "bargain bin" prices at all). Its the place to buy stuff that the market otherwise has decided (excuse me, the LABEL has otherwise decided) isn't marketable. It doesn't cost a thing except a little labor to take something out of print (where you're the only place with the master recording), digitize it, shrink it down to a mp3/itune/wma, and put it up there. No its not going to sell a million downloads, but that's the point. You'll make money even with only a relative handful of sales.
So until they reconsider what they're selling, and offer up more than the already "top-selling" stuff (where if I wanted it, I've already got it, and if I don't want it, it ain't worth $0.99 a track anyways), I have no interest in those types of stores whatsoever.
Best line, describing MTV's online store: "If their music store turns out anything like their cable channel, it won't have any actual music on it."
For myself, I have little to no interest in those stores and what they offer, because they all off what to me is the same crap. Only the best selling stuff is allowed to say selling the market, and the truth is that its an utterly wasted opportunity.
Its an online store, where there's no shelf-space, no shipping weight requirements, no problem of stuff not being sorted properly because in the christmas rush, the lazy-ass retail staff never bothered to clean up after the ignorant customers rampaged the place.
Its not the place to buy Pink Floyd. Its not the place to by The Beatles. That stuff still sells in stores (and at top prices; neither group has dropped to "bargain bin" prices at all). Its the place to buy stuff that the market otherwise has decided (excuse me, the LABEL has otherwise decided) isn't marketable. It doesn't cost a thing except a little labor to take something out of print (where you're the only place with the master recording), digitize it, shrink it down to a mp3/itune/wma, and put it up there. No its not going to sell a million downloads, but that's the point. You'll make money even with only a relative handful of sales.
So until they reconsider what they're selling, and offer up more than the already "top-selling" stuff (where if I wanted it, I've already got it, and if I don't want it, it ain't worth $0.99 a track anyways), I have no interest in those types of stores whatsoever.
