music fan

Music Industry Downfall: The Rise of Social Streaming

The RIAA members caused their own downfall by failing to recognize (early on) that their bloated business model was formerly successful only because music patrons had no ability to buy music alacarte.

Patrons were in effect victims of a monopolistic system where they had the buy the whole album even if they wanted only a couple of songs.

Instead of recognizing that this monopolistic approach was going to break down - and thereby adapting (eliminating the old infrastructure and embracing digital distribution), they instead sought to fight their own customer's wishes.

Even today songs should not cost $1 per song. They should be 25 cents. If record companies shut down the old distribution model (and shed the costs) they could afford to sell them that cheap and still make a large profit. The only way to eliminate these so called free distribution sites is to reduce the cost of downloads radically and improve the quality of the service. If songs are only a quarter a piece from a high quality well run website - who would waste their time searching peer networks for a file of dubious origin and quality?

Until the RIAA realizes that the old days of bloated administration and label costs (and ridiculous profits) are gone forever, it will continue to lose legitimate opportunities for digital sales.

I'm not saying that the downloaders are morally correct - I'm saying you are not going to return to the old model by simply scolding people. Lower price - higher quality is the key for the RIAA.

FYI - I pay a subscription music service through Yahoo.