Tuesday, December 04, 2007

British Band sells its album directly to consumers



The Strait Times Digital Life carries a the story of a band that has managed to get fans pay for music, but without restricting them. Just opposite of what popular record label companies do. A noteworthy snippet from this article:


Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman told a conference...
"We expected our business will remain blissfully unaffected even as the world of interactivity, constant connection and filesharing was exploding. And of course we were wrong."



Let me diverge from Digital Rights Management to affordability. The above article makes me think of India, which is one of the countries where pirated music (and software) make a good business. Why is that? Despite the emergence of multiple means of accessing music, record labels are unwilling to reduce the price of their CDs, so clearly common man cannot afford them and goes for cheaper pirated copies. The same is true for software and printed books.


I understand that these companies are existing not for charity, but to make a profit. Only if they understand that making these goods more affordable increases volume and drives more business to them & reduces piracy...


(Note: using google cache as I could not link directly to the story. The Strait Times requires an online subscription for Digital Life. It is a wonderful weekly print edition though).