Future of the Music Industry
 

I was reading this article about Rick Rubin, a music producer now working as co-head of Columbia Records and this was his suggestion for the future of the industry...

"To combat the devastating impact of file sharing, he, like others in the music business (Doug Morris and Jimmy Iovine at Universal, for instance), says that the future of the industry is a subscription model, much like paid cable on a television set. "You would subscribe to music," Rubin explained, as he settled on the velvet couch in his library. "You'd pay, say, $19.95 a month, and the music will come anywhere you'd like. In this new world, there will be a virtual library that will be accessible from your car, from your cellphone, from your computer, from your television. Anywhere. The iPod will be obsolete, but there would be a Walkman-like device you could plug into speakers at home. You'll say, 'Today I want to listen to ... Simon and Garfunkel,' and there they are. The service can have demos, bootlegs, concerts, whatever context the artist wants to put out. And once that model is put into place, the industry will grow 10 times the size it is now." http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/ma...pagewanted=all

What do you think of this idea? Do you think it could work or that you would like it?

How would that be different than XM Radio or similar services?

I think they're talking about something more "on-demand". I agree that it sounds similar to XM/Sirius, but even with either of those, you still have to wait for the songs you want to hear to come on.

The problem with the music industry today isn't file sharing.

..........it's the fact that mainstream music is nothing short of absolute garbage and 99.9% of the bands are too superficial and self-absorbed to go out on the road and actually make money. The best music right now is coming from the jam band scene.....guys who bust their ass on the road and build huge fan bases.