They are missing a bet here. While music sharing *can* result in increased sales, it has to be done through traditional music outlets. That is, listen to it for free from download, but if you want to buy it, get it from a record store.
If they try to sell it online, it defeats the purpose, because you can get the track for free online. They have to sell the physical disks to profit from this model.
However, that being said, even more importantly, the music industry needs to exploit one of the most impressive side effects of peer swapped music: it encourages downloaders to find not just other music from their favorite artists, but to discover new artists.
For example, a downloader likes an artist who belongs to the “Chicago Electric Blues” genre. On the Internet, he can quickly find out what other artists belong to that genre, and quickly get samples of their work, knowing that they are a lot like the artist he already likes.
Practically speaking, this means that instead of wanting just three *physical* albums from one artist, he discovers that there are fifty or a hundred albums out there for artists he has just discovered.
From the consumer point of view, it is like discovering that a novel you really enjoyed was just the first of 20 written in that series, by that author. You are in consumer heaven.
And *that* is what the music industry needs to capitalize on. Both letting downloaders know that there is a LOT more that they might like out there, *and* to be able to give them the physical product when they want it.
Say they have just discovered Big Bill Broonzy. There might not be an album of his still on the shelves. The music industry needs to get a print of that album to that consumer. They might also need to print up single copies of every other album BBB ever did.
And *that* is where the real money is. “Pirate” song downloading didn’t cost them a penny, it made them a fortune.
yup. They missed the boat big time. When napster first came out there was a huge opportunity just lying there, and the record companies were so trapped in their existing channels and mindsets that they blew billions of dollars of potential revenue, and goodwill.
I don't know anything about downloading yet but there is a music website that allows you to create your own music station. Due to that ability, I've found lots of Latin artists which I never knew existed and ultimately purchased their CD's