Don't expect graphics here - browse if you want information, but this is not for children or the"alphabetically challenged". Currently the site is sponsored by the Lipstick record label and therefore the information here is available for free.
It mainly shows that a lot of todays discussions (and the spectacular law-suits and discussions a few years ago were just repeats of earlier debates. Filesharing did not start with Napster (which will also soon be forgotten outside of legal history books) and there is no "new ecomomy", since the rules of relationships pointed out by economic science do not change just because of some jump in technology.
At this point in time - mid 2007 - the situation in music has not changed much, except that sales of music have gone down and down and down as I predicted a long time ago (something that is obvious) and the average income of musicians has gone down and down and down.
What has changed though is that film and TV-show producers are also suffering from the same new possibilities for theft. I hope that this might lead to stronger cooordinated efforts to introduce technical solutions to a technical problem. The moral problem can not be solved, since people always want things for free. Reducing free distribution of music and other entertainment content products can only be done with technical solutions. These are possible, but they will only be implemented under the right pressure. The content industries have to work together and tell the rest of the world that their products will all only be available with one clearly defined and workable, but secure solution from a certain point on. Only the content industries can define what they need and no-one who has a conflict of interest (including Apple, consumer electronics manufacturers, politicians (wanting to please the population and other stroger industries) should influence this. Wether prices and security measures will be accepted and lead to sales can only be discussed if they are actually implemented and no-one has a chance to circumvent them. People will always complain if they have to pay more for something or have to pay for something that they used to get for free - but someone stealing my product is not a consumer,even though he consumes my product.
I currently have the following historical articles and news on this site:
If you have additional questions or want to hire consultants regarding music business issues, click here to e-mail (alex@mebis.com)
Author: Alex MerckLast Updated: 16.June 2003