12.16.11 Adam Madness continues

Regarding the legal vs. illegal download debate, I highly recommend reading Steve Jobs' biography. I just got past the part where iTunes was created and it was revolutionary.

In the early 2000s, after the iPod had been developed and the digital revolution occurred, and pirating sites like Napster were everywhere the music industry was stymied. They did NOT know what to do. They were in a free fall and the different solutions were competing with each other and the entire thing was a mess.

Eventually they came to Jobs, whose primary premise for the iTunes store was that, in general, people WANT TO OWN THEIR MUSIC and do WANT TO DO THE RIGHT THING.

Everyone scoffed at him. Why would people pay for stuff they are getting for free?? But he was steadfast and said micro-pricing would work and people would buy. Because he can be incredibly persuasive, he got the licensing rights to many of the major music companies to start off.

iTunes store sold a million downloads in the first six days. It sold 70 million songs its first year and as of October 4, 2011, it sold its 16 billionth song. This was all after the industry thought all was lost to free downloading. It wasn't then and it isn't now.

There are people who are going to pay because it's the right thing to do and there are people who are not. But Apple's dominance as a music presence was built on the premise that more people will pay if given the opportunity to do so. Every one of those 16 billion sales PROVES that people WILL indeed buy something they can technically get for free.

This seems to happen a lot ... here is an interesting perspective from Chamillionaire on how songs get leaked. He was the other artist who participated with Adam in the Grammy Social Media summit back in Feb.
www.chamillionaire.com/blog/post/fan-question-how-do-songs-leak

thanks that was an interesting read.