I pulled this from some commentary on the webcasting royalty fees the RIAA will getting shortly:
And the RIAA experts said, “Well, we don’t really model this as an industry with thousands of webcasters, we think it should be an industry with, you know, five or seven big players who can pay a high rate and it’s a stable, predictable market.”
This kind of mentality is why I will never, ever support tort reform, but that’s another topic for another day.
Our system allows this kind of gaming by established players. In fact, the players have a fiduciary duty to game the system as hard as they can to preserve shareholder value.
But these same players also have a duty to increase the value of their company. And they are far, far from realizing the full size of their market.
What these idiots just don’t understand is that the size of their “stable, predictable market” could be ten times what is today if they would serve consumers instead of legislating consumers serve them.
In some respects, their model is very good. As long as they can bank on complete control of what the 12-22 year target audience hears, they can predict a stable market.
But what about me?
What about my mom and dad?
What about 90% of the people I know that know longer buy music, or even listen to much music anymore?
Are we completely out of the market? It’s not that we hate music. It’s that we finally got tired of feeling ripped off.
The RIAA would have it so.
Fine. Let them.
Ultimately, they are stupid. They have no real interest in the musical taste of anyone over 22. Since they control the market (there is no such thing as a free market), the actual, real market of music consumers is largely untapped. And will remain so under the current conditions.
Here is a hint to anyone that cares: music is like food. People will never, ever get tired of it, but they require novelty. When you price the novelty too high, you kill the interest. It isn ‘t a gradual thing. In physics terms, it’s a state transition, like from solid to gas. Most people will either buy on a regular basis, or they won’t buy at all.
