Second, I’m seeing a few flaws. You’re talking about a subscription model that rewards artists based on how much time people spend listening to their music, but you also talk about letting people download music. Why would I continue to use the subscription service after I had downloaded copies of the music? Why would I continue to pay for something I already had? And if you aren’t going to let people download copies of the music, what’s the particular attraction to your product? Why would it succeed over piracy, which does offer copies? There would also be problems making the system profitable for the owners of the distribution site without increasing the price to much on consumers.

It would probably be easier to start then you think. It just needs a few groups to sign on as starters and give bonuses to groups that join early. It would take some capital, but it’s definitely doable without someone like the RIAA mandating membership.

It’s a workable model, and probably a better one then we have now (almost certainly better), but don’t say that it’s simple. It would have some issues that would need to be ironed out, particularly since no one has tried a model like this before..

One smaller question; Why would albums be important? Why wouldn’t artists just release songs as they came out? I’ve just never understood people’s attraction to the album format of music. Seems kind of pointless to me.