PPL, AIM, BPI etc take note.

As much as download sales is fantastic, great and good for the music industry. The future for it is rather limited and in a DRM free world of course the piracy free for all will continue. Will we see a rogue p2p software which offers full streaming of tracks before the industry sits up and does something proactive for a change. Like the Emucast project a few years ago i think an interactive radio system is now essential for the music industry to have even if it is to protect artists and labels for the day when the bubble of downloads bursts.

I predict it will be linked to mobiles, iphone or similar once the ridiculous GPRS and other mobile protocols which is vastly overpriced eventually tumbles.
If the PPL for example had an interactive streaming service with all its members material the uptake will be staggering because consumers know it will always be there.

Subscription is the green way to own music. The jukebox in the sky. Of course most people will play back catalogue and previous hits. Ive been listening to the following

Dynasty (pop quiz who can remember what label they were on), Shalamar, The king of pop Michael Jackson, Amy Grant, Sam Phillips, The Whispers. I dont have to hunt for the mp3 on my computer nor God forbid open some plastic cased CD and make a mess of my studio. Thank God for subscription.

Maybe new releases should remain downloads and then once 12 weeks have passed they move on to the subscription sites.

Anyway folks have a nice week.

I hadn`t really thought of downloads as the green way to get music, although of course it is.
It`s funny how cd`s don`t hold their value isn`t it? I have one valuable cd which a very rare copy of Bowie`s first album, whereas my vinyl collection would buy a new car if they were all sold at once.
This raises an interesting point, baring in mind that the collector has made no small part in keeping an industry fed.
How do we invent the first collectable download?
I imagine it is to be sold along with a printed MP3 player as a sleeve. Has this been done yet?

Don't worry Mart, as time changes so fast, in a couple of years we'll be getting our music just by thinking of it and downloads will be quaint and very collectible antiques, sold by dusty old ladies in tiny corner shops.

I subscribe to eMusic and enjoy it. After storing up with all the stuff I had missed over the years, I'm now discovering lots of stuff. These are download subscriptions, not streamables.

I like e-music as well. It`s very like a mobile phone subsciption in which you don`t use all your call time up.
I hope it`s chartable as I`m on it!

Mart wrote:
I like e-music as well. It`s very like a mobile phone subsciption in which you don`t use all your call time up.
I hope it`s chartable as I`m on it!
You modest hobbit!

www.emusic.com/album/10968/10968661.html

8 seconds to download. It actually took more for Winamp to load! Why don't you have the rest of the tracks up there as well?

There is a good reason for this Michael.
The web guys have still not got my whole mix working as a segue on the net, as they are finding the file too large to convert.
Meanwhile we are going for the shortest ever download only hit to promote the project.

www.emusic.com/artist/11718/11718445.html

My link was notably a different one to yours, that`s strange.

The "single" is also available at HMV, if anyone has a minute..

Mart wrote:
...
Meanwhile we are going for the shortest ever download only hit to promote the project.

...

There's your PR angle right there!

M

Indeed.