Re: This napster thingy

["L. Bird" <pkeets@hotmail.com>]

>So the times they are are changing! And napster and co may be the new thing 
>and might not go away but some questions need to be asked and some of you 
>have already done so. Still,will napster and co promote the music (even 
>brand new artists) the way the big old record companies used to ?

I think Napster serves to promote by word-of-mouth.  Companies like MP3.com 
look to be aligning to take over recording, and they may adopt the same 
strategies that big record companies have used, or they may come up with 
others instead.  For right now, it looks like artists are very much in 
charge of their own promotion.  There's a modest structure in place to 
handle it, though, without megabuck expenditures.


>This is not a put down of napster or the  new technology or whatever. but 
>someone has to asnwer this question, if napster et all is about giving 
>music away for free, how pray does the band make money? By live concert 
>only?

That works for the interim.  I'm not going to complain that TED are out 
there doing it.


>What am I missing here ? If I am an artist and cannot
>make money from my records then what's the point ? there has to be some 
>kind of two way co-operation if both regimes are to operate profitably as 
>well as commercially.

If there's no money in it, artists will stop making recordings.  It's as 
simple as that, and for a lot of artists, already at that point.  I do think 
they're open for new outlets, though.


>It's true that the big companies are afraid of competition, technology 
>etc.. Sony tried to stop home video and
>home audio taping etc... but their fear is genuine,it's their business 
>being threatened,it's only natural they'd want to protect it.

It's because they've had absolute control of production and distribution for 
so long that they are holding on so tightly.  They do have a bundle to lose. 
  Technology has undermined their monopoly, though, and now it's a 
free-for-all.  We'll have to see how it sorts out.


LB
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