CNet. Internet music distribution entrepreneurs should give it up. They should focus on becomming an independent label with a lean cost structure. I agree. This should have been the model for MP3.com (or at least it was when they started out).
>>>As anyone who has spent any time with a major will tell you, these are immensely profitable businesses that have absolutely no inclination to change anything they are doing–ever. Record companies make obscene amounts of money manufacturing little silver disks, sending them out through distributors that they own, and getting retailers to push them over the counter at $16 a pop (and paying those retailers a pittance in the process). A truly great business.<<<
Frankly, this is exactly the kind of business that will continue to face consumer backlash in the new economy. They are inefficient and have erected artificial barriers to competition in order to charge excessive prices. Until albums arrive on my hard-drive at $2-3 a pop, they won't get any of my business. Nothing in between works. This may take ten years, but in the meantime I will continue to use Kazaa. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]