Sick of the music industry complaining about p2p networks? Me Too. And I have an idea to make them and the general public happy.
An open letter to the talking heads of the music industry
So, you’re the big kid on the block. You win through intimidation. You’re a bully. You sue people for downloading songs off the internet. Rich people, poor people… it doesn’t matter. You want to make an example of anyone and everyone that would dare “steal” from you.
But, just like most bullies, you’re dumb. You’re so self-centered and self-absorbed that you fail to see how simple a resolution to this issue really is. As I’m driving in my car, I flip from radio station to radio station, listening to whatever I want (well, ok, whatever station I want but what I actually listen to is limited to what is being played). Anyway, the point is this… I’m not paying for it. It’s free to me. Why? Because of advertising.
So, here’s what you do: Get Napster, Microsoft, Apple or anyone to create a sharing website. You put every song ever created on that website for people to download whatever/whenever they want. All for free. And everyone is happy. Oh wait, I forgot the most important part, money. Ok, easy enough. One word. Advertising. To download a song, you sit through a 30 second audio or video ad. When the ad is done playing, you give the person downloading 15 seconds to click the continue button to start the download. The download finishes and another page comes up that says “this download sponsored by” with a “return to search page” button.
Wait, it gets even better the advertising prices are based on number of downloads. For instance, if Garth Brooks comes out with a new album with a monster song and everyone wants to download it the cost to advertise at that spot is the highest. Do that for the top 10 downloaded songs. 11-20 would be a set rate. 21-50 would be another rate. So on and so forth. The more a song is downloaded, the higher the advertising rate.
You could even allow album downloads. Simply make the person downloading sit through a 2 or 3 minute block of “commercials” before the download starts. Track the album downloads the same way you do “singles” and assign a value to the 1 album download and go down from there.
What smart business wouldn’t want in on that? I’m sure the advertising rates would be cheaper than on TV and you’d get a guaranteed number of people seeing your advertising. Remember if the user doesn’t watch the ad and click the “continue” button, they get redirected back to their previous page. Nobody could skip out on watching the ads. But, because it would be free for the user (the fan) they would have no reason not to watch the ads.
How come nobody has thought of this? Maybe if the idiots trying to sue everyone (but only catching a very small portion of the people illegally downloading) would wake up and try to solve the problem instead of throwing lawsuits at it, everyone actually could be happy.
So, what do you say? Sound like a plan? Would you watch a 30 second ad to download whatever song you want… for free? Would you watch 6 commercials to download an entire album? I sure would. I’d have every song I’d ever wanted and I’d watch all the commercials I had to. I already watch ads on TV so this would be nothing.
I’m sure this is just a dream of mine. I can’t imagine anyone in the music industry would actually do something like this. But, hey, at least I’m thinking about a solution instead being a bully and suing everyone.
November 28th, 2007 at 5:10 am
Wow, thats the best idea I have ever heard of. This deserves to be dugg.
Here is the link:
http://digg.com/music/A_solution_to_make_music_downloading_legal
November 28th, 2007 at 10:49 am
Explain again exactly how it’s not possible to just switch tab for 30 seconds (or however long) then switch back in time to click the download link.
The time window that the link is open for would have to be ridiculously small to make that impossible, and then you’re just going to piss off all the people who are trying to download but not reacting fast enough.
I guess it could work though.. advertisers don’t have a problem with the fact that you can turn the radio down during the adverts, or go make a sandwich when they’re on TV.
November 28th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
Yeah, I had checked into mpfree.com and it’s not quite what I’m suggesting. What mpfree.com does is require you to click on links, answer surveys and agree to fill your inbox with spam. What I’m suggesting is actual advertisements for products (just like TV commercials). And Matt, yes, people could very easily switch tabs for 30 seconds and switch back… but like you said, the same thing happens with TV commercials. If you think about it though, you’d still be listening to the ad at least so you’d know when to switch back to click the link to continue.
Obviously this “idea” of mine isn’t a be-all-end-all solution. It’s meant to be a starting point. I’d love to see this evolve into something everyone could be happy with. I just don’t think it will happen without more people trying to solve the problem.
November 28th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
people wont go for this because its a waste of their time. people can get music for free. why would they want to sit through a commercial to get whats already free?
November 28th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
Brilliant idea! Although it is kind of funny how you start your article calling the music industry people dumb, then have several serious grammar errors in the first three paragraphs. Oh well, your idea is good anyway and they could at least try it and see how it works.
November 29th, 2007 at 1:12 am
* mp3’s, not mo3’s…. can’t type tonight
November 29th, 2007 at 5:10 am
Why would I switch to that and have to wait however many seconds before I can even download a song, when I can already download multiple songs at a time, free, without ads. If I had to do that and had no other options I would simply go without, it’d take hours of watching commercials just to get a decent library of songs…
November 29th, 2007 at 9:53 am
“then have several serious grammar errors”… If you must correct the grammar of someone, please make sure you do it properly… that would be “grammatical errors”. And, I hate to say it, but I don’t see “several” grammatical errors in the first three paragraphs. I do see some first person writing that isn’t written like a novel, but I wouldn’t say anything is a serious error. Oh well, no big deal to me.
“Why would I switch to that and have to wait however many seconds before I can even download a song, when I can already download multiple songs at a time, free, without ads.” The point is, yes, you can do that, many people do. However, IT IS ILLEGAL. The idea behind this is to find a LEGAL way for people to download music.
Lynx, I completely respect your position. I hadn’t thought of this from a musicians point of view, only from a fan’s. But, go back to my earlier comment and I admit this isn’t a “perfect” idea. It is simply an idea to stimulate discussion about LEGAL alternatives. It would be ideal to have all sides represented, including musicians, to come up with a real solution.
“Your idea is dumb. Lynx and Man are winners. Everyone else: tools.” Brilliant rebuttal. No, seriously, I THINK I understand what you’re saying. But I can’t download an album and then turn around and send the artist some money. I have no idea how to get the money to them directly and it would still be illegal.
Feel free to keep the comments coming, positive or negative.
November 29th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Very interesting and clever idea. How would the artist get paid?
November 29th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
At least you are trying to solve the dilemma. Someone else can fine tune your ideas. Great try.
November 30th, 2007 at 7:52 am
The artists would get paid the same as they do now.. based on sales. The more downloads, the more they make from the advertising “bucket”. But, as the musician above said, that would keep the middle man in the loop and the musicians would get the short end. Like Judy said, fine-tuning would definitely be needed to work many issues out.
December 10th, 2007 at 1:05 am
Hey, just stumbled on this, I really like this idea and although it has some problems (what idea doesn’t?) it seems like it would work fairly well.
I believe that the ads would prove to be a good idea for creating revenue for the corporations. I just had an idea to add to that where aside from the major record label artists being on the front page of this site, how about having another part of the page for independent artists?
The page could feature sample clips of the songs and maybe a short bio of the artist (possibly written by the artist?) and I am not sure if this would work but what about allowing the independents to have their songs/albums downloaded without using ads? People will not have to wait through a 2-3 minute ad run, and they can get the artists’ music faster?
Although I am unsure how the independents would be paid, I am sure some kind of deal could be made, any ideas?
December 12th, 2007 at 6:09 am
DR, no ideas on that one. But, to be honest, I’ve been out of the country for the last week and haven’t thought about it. I like the idea of sample clips somewhere along the way. Maybe two links per song… One to download, one to hear a sample. As for the independent musician getting paid… I have no idea. That’s why this “idea” would need input from people like Lynx. Put everyone’s brain to use to come up with a solution that works.
I was thinking about the monetary implications of this. Someone posted earlier that it would be very little money. Why does it have to be? If the new media medium is the internet (as the writer’s union in Hollywood knows it is, thus the strike) why wouldn’t big corporations pay big money to advertise on the internet? Ford, GM, Coke, Pepsi (to name a very few) could pay advertising rates similar to television. How many downloads does the #1 download have off ITunes? I don’t know for sure, but that is a pay service. Imaging if it were free to the customer. How many people would download that same sone if they could do it for free and with no fear of repurcussions?
Anyway, I’m rambling. Keep spreading the word and maybe someday someone will do something serious about this issue.
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