Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Frank Zappa as far back as 1983 was suggesting a different business model for the music inductry. He called it "A PROPOSAL FOR A SYSTEM TO REPLACE ORDINARY RECORD MERCHANDISING"

"We propose to acquire the rights to digitally duplicate and store THE BEST of
every record company's difficult-to-move Quality Catalog Items [Q.C.I.], store
them in a central processing location, and have them accessible by phone or
cable TV, directly patchable into the user's home taping appliances, with the
option of direct digital-to-digital transfer to F-1 (SONY consumer level digital tape
encoder), Beta Hi-Fi, or ordinary analog cassette (requiring the installation of a
rentable D-A converter in the phone itself . . . the main chip is about $12).

All accounting for royalty payments, billing to the customer, etc. would be
automatic, built into the initial software for the system.

The consumer has the option of subscribing to one or more Interest Categories,
charged at a monthly rate, without regard for the quantity of music he or she
decides to tape.

Providing material in such quantity at a reduced cost could actually diminish the
desire to duplicate and store it, since it would be available any time day or night. "

SO these ideas have been around for a while...

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