http://profy.com/2008/03/30/warnertax/ Internet news and commentary Sun, 12 Oct 2008 04:32:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 http://profy.com/2008/03/30/warnertax/#comment-422591 wyly Tue, 01 Apr 2008 04:14:57 +0000 http://profy.com/2008/03/30/warnertax/#comment-422591 The next vine the record labels are grasping for is already dangling in front of their faces. I subscribe to Napster and honestly love it. It combines unlimited selection, intelligent search, playlists, automixing based on taste, radio stations and the ability to purchase songs if you think you want to own some (although I haven't seen the need to buy any since they will soon be converting to unprotected mp3 files for that). Even after they convert to mp3 I don't see the point in buying something I already have access to and which will likely be obsolete in a few years anyway. The labels just need to get behind Napster and Rhapsody with wholesale pricing that assures their survival in this critical time, give them some marketing support and most importantly, demand hardware manufacturers embrace a single industry standard DRM for subscriptions. The labels have the licenses. If Apple doesn't want to play ball they should pull the plug. The next vine the record labels are grasping for is already dangling in front of their faces. I subscribe to Napster and honestly love it. It combines unlimited selection, intelligent search, playlists, automixing based on taste, radio stations and the ability to purchase songs if you think you want to own some (although I haven’t seen the need to buy any since they will soon be converting to unprotected mp3 files for that). Even after they convert to mp3 I don’t see the point in buying something I already have access to and which will likely be obsolete in a few years anyway. The labels just need to get behind Napster and Rhapsody with wholesale pricing that assures their survival in this critical time, give them some marketing support and most importantly, demand hardware manufacturers embrace a single industry standard DRM for subscriptions. The labels have the licenses. If Apple doesn’t want to play ball they should pull the plug.

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