I subscribe to Sirius satellite radio. Whenever I hear a song I’d like to own I pull out my phone and leave myself a “memo” which reminds me to download it once I get home. One of the best things about Sirius is the ability to see the songs title as well as group or artist. Once home, I’ll fire up WarezP2P and see if I can find the song to download. If the song is from a group with which I’m not familiar, I’ll download a few other songs from them. If I like more than a couple of songs I’ll go buy the album. This very scenario played out when I ran a Hotline server a few years ago. Someone uploaded a song from the Sundays called “Here’s Where the Story Ends” and I liked it so much I went to Tower Records and bought every CD of theirs I could find.
Some may ask why don’t I just use iTunes, Napster or some other “legit” music service? Well, quite simply I don’t use them because they come with too many restrictions attached. When I purchase a CD I can burn a copy for backup. I can rip it to mp3 and send a song or two to my friends who may end up purchasing their own copy. If I end up not liking the CD I can sell it at Graywhale or Ebay it. I refuse to use iTunes because I’d need a user manual to keep track of all the restrictions placed on purchased music file. Same goes for Napster. The idea of paying Napster $15/month to have full access to their catalog which disappears if I don’t continue the subscription just doesn’t make sense. Sounds like the type of plan only a cell phone company could devise.
I would use iTunes or another music service if it sold high quality mp3s instead of proprietary formats like AAC and WMA. I want to support the artists which I have to the tune of over 800 CDs over the years. And before that in cassette and vinyl. I’m pretty sure I’ve purchase Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” at least half a dozen times. But I won’t support a music service that gives me less freedom with my music than I have now with CDs. The RIAA must not understand that suing your customers for thousands of dollars isn’t likely to yield more sales. If I had to hand over even a few hundred dollars to the RIAA I’d never purchase another CD again.
So what is the solution? Would I be willing to pay for all my music if the RIAA would be more lenient in allowing music services such as iTunes to sell singles in mp3 format? If I could download any song for 99 cents in mp3 format I’d probably never use another P2P application like WarezP2P or look for songs on Usenet.
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