Consumers loathe digital rights management! In other news, the sky is up.
And can we have a great big gigantic WTF
“There's a problem here. CD sales have fallen 20 per cent over five years. The message here is not that CD sales are coming back, the ability to obtain pirated music is now so widespread the DRM looks to consumers more like a problem than a benefit.” Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff (read more)
Ya think?!??!????!!!!!!!
The music industry has spent time trying to force consumers to cling to old distribution methods when they damn well should have been hopping on the digital-distribution bandwagon much faster, much earlier, and much more smoothly.
Instead, now they look like a gaggle of obstructionary fossils. Instead of freaking out that consumers were pissed about paying $15 for CDs with one or two songs they liked, the music labels should have figured out more ways to let consumers buy exactly the music they wanted, when they wanted.
It's possible there's still time to turn it around. It's possible that the music labels can get their heads out of the sand (or their backsides) and start routinely providing consumers with ways to pay how the consumers choose (per song, per month, or a funded incremental account). It would take some retraining; but if they provide a quality experience and are genuinely responsive to what consumers want, it's possible that piracy won't be as widespread as they phear.
On the other hand, keep going on this lame-ass track, and more of us will eventually decide to download things like BitTorrent and check out songs before we buy them...only to find that it wasn't what we wanted after all.
Related entry: Didn’t I pay for that already?
Keywords: | digital rights management | consumer rights |
Posted by Laughing Muse • 579 views • Share this link • Newer • Older
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