[ARSCLIST] "record" sales in the 21st century--was: interesting!

["Steven C. Barr(x)" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marcos Sueiro" <mls2137@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> But a key point is this: current copyright restrictions do not allow 
> other sources (collectors and libraries) to make that content available 
> (free or not) for society at large. This I find pernicious.
> 
> The way I see it, copyright law was designed to protect a large business 
> model that just does not work any longer. It made sense when a large 
> investment was needed to create a product that could in turn generate 
> large revenue. Once record companies are gone, copyright restrictions 
> will go away.
> 
The "eternal" term for sound-recording copright applies (so far) only
in the USA...the UK recently elected NOT to increase their term, which
seems to apply in the EU and the Commonwealth (a more reasonable 50 years).
And most of this was done to protect a mere handful of saleable recordings
(mainly Elvis Presley, who started to slide into p.d. this past year!).

However, a future without record companies (or whatever their digital
equivalent will turn out to be) also seems somewhat impractical. I can
promote my two CD's on my web site (one of a hundred million or so
sites)...but that requires the potential customers to have a reason
to visit the site. Since the CD's are in a niche genre (blues)...what
I would need to do is to mail out "promo" copies to every station
(electromagnetic-wave radio AND net-based "radio") in hopes it will
be heard and folks will like the music enough to do a web search for
a source (or that the deejays will tell their listeners where
to look...?!). As it is, the now-vanishing model has "record companies"
mailing out promo copies...and, through a web of distributors, making
their "product" available in both "record stores" and general-merchandise
stores/chains that sell CD's. Note that as a relative unknown, I can't
access this distribution web...!

Steven C. Barr