

NBC Universal says "good-bye" to iTunes






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RE: My final comment.
By alifbaa on 8/31/2007 6:02:59 PM , Rating: 1
It's not about piracy being OK. It's about being able to use the content in a way that I choose and that is easy and cheap. There is no reason for me to need to pay up to $15 for a CD that costs, at most, $2 to produce including the royalties to the artists. The production costs fall precipitously when you look at the DRM'd up music for sale over the internet, yet the cost to the consumer is the same or higher on a per song basis.

To make matters worse, the music being delivered to us has undergone absolutely no fundamental change in over 20 years! Our music is still in stereo using the same recording standards as when the CD was introduced. It's still largely sold on a disc that has to be stored somewhere and played on a player that is incapable of becoming truly portable. We aren't allowed to copy it to play it in different locations. In short, my toaster's new digital controls and LEDs have produced more fundamental change in the last 10 years than the entire music industry has in 20!

In business, peoples' tastes and preferences change. To survive, firms must anticipate and adapt to those changes. Customers are no longer willing to pay $15 for an album that they can't take with them and takes up space when there should be a far cheaper, far more portable solution. The industry failed to anticipate and adapt to this change, so its current problems were the inevitable result.

Don't be fooled. Your business' failure wasn't your customers' fault. It was the fault of the people who were supposed to market your work in the most effective ways possible. The new ways of marketing your work may well prove less profitable than they were previously, but that's another thing that happens in business sometimes.

My advice to you... quite whining to us about the risks you voluntarily took upon yourself and your family. Business fail all the time. In fact, they fail 5 times as often as they succeed. You knew that before you put everything you had into your business. You also knew that most successful business people have a long string of failures leading up to their success.

I understand your personal pain and the feelings associated with a failing business that you bet it all on and have a real passion for. Having said that, if you had made millions instead of losing it all, you surely wouldn't be giving it back to us because you had a good time doing it.

Instead of complaining to us about your misfortune, why not start working within the industry to create some change. Who knows, maybe this failure is what you needed to make your fortune. Best of luck to you, and I hope your tooth is taken care of!

