In this interview Matt and I discuss how the book’s been received, the future of the music industry and some exciting news about Matt’s upcoming projects.

Link is here: http://mymediamusings.com/2008/03/12/my-interview-with-matt-mason/

Thought some of your readers might be interested in checking it out.

Thanks,

David

Attitude is the way you mentally look at the world around you. It is how you view your environment and your future. It is the focus you develop toward life itself….

Meanwhile if you’re looking to license music legally for commercial use, try http://www.youlicense.com it’s good.

1) More people are introduced to high-speed internet connections, so more people will pirate. The crowd will be large, the chances of you getting caught will be statistically negligible.

2) Even now, bittorrent has RC4 encryption that protects the piraters from passive surveillance. Encryption technologies will only improve.

More people will pirate in the future. No business model will change this fact.

I’m sorry to sound defeatist (or optimist to some!), but the music industry (I am counting your model as an industry, Matt) is doomed without the enforcement of some serious privacy invasion.

A time will come when people will choose between the right of personal privacy or the right of intellectual property (limited to digitalized manifestations). I have confidence that at least the United States government will choose the former.

“Give me liberty or give me death!”

I am the first to admit that I steal. None of this stupid “pirate” crap as if pirates were ever something worth emulating. Pirates stole, killed, raped, and brutalized anyone and everyone who got in their way. Maybe a little less time spent on courses like “Defining One’s Inner Self” and a bit more on history, sociology, and economics could benefit a few people. Or maybe hacking into their accounts, finding out where they live, and then stealing THEIR possessions and watching what happeens.

You are right on the mark that we are passing through a time of massive transformations of how we access any number of things and how we will pay for them. Both your commune in Vermount and the complete utter failures of Communism/Socialism throughout the world prove that when no one is rewarded for output then output ceases to happen. There has to be some mechanism that provides the creator of a product with recognition for his/her work. And at this stage in technology it is still unrealistic to assume that there can be a direct and instantaneous connection between creator and user.

Would I pay a monthly fee for content? Sure. I pay for cable TV and Internet right now and, while I may not like the current pricing, I certainly don’t have hissy fits because it is not free. What I want is content that is transferable to wherever I may be and in multi formats. I don’t want any kind of spam/protection/etc included. If it eventually becomes 100% streaming then that’s less hardware that I have to carry around.

Anyway, thanks Matt, and some others here also, who manage to rise above the level of immaturity that usually predominates. You well conceived thoughts make me confident that the future will arrive in time with something that we can all live with. Most of us anyway. :)

Of course, there’s also nothing to stop bands selling tracks either. In that case, you have a choice. use the licence to DL from wherever, or get the track direct from the band, with out having to find a good torrent or the like.

For example, Jonathan Coulton and other CC-licenced artists. I have several of his songs. I bought them legally, but I can also distribute them legally. So, I could have gone looking for a copy, but hey, I could get them off his send, and send him a tip at the same time.

My idea is that artists should get money from live shows, donations and from selling merchandise (like t-shirts and other stuff)

PS “Music INDUSTRY” is complete abomination in my opinion. Music is form of art, industry can`t be art in anyway. Art is here forever, industry only for period when it is profitable.

PPS there is only 1 good point in whole article: current system must die.

How’s the musician supposed to pay for the equipment? Get a job right?
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Do live shows maybe? They do generate money you know….

iTunes charging $1 for a digital download is insane. It costs them LESS to distribute it digitally and the quality is inferior to the cd, yet they charge the same amount. Prices around 10-15c a song is what I can easily live with, which is what allofmp3 is charging – I actually bought music for the first time in my life from the cuz it’s easy to access and price is reasonable. Right now what they are doing is probably not benefiting artists because of the whole royalties fiasco but there’s no reason record companies can’t adapt the same model. And yes, record companies’ fat asses will have to be trimmed a bit. Ripping off artists by keeping most of the profit to themselves gig is up and it’s about time they face the music and adopt a model where they can’t hold the entire industry hostage.

http://rapidshare.com/files/58796285/All_The_Newest_PremiumAccounts_For_RapidShare.rar