The record industry could lose a fortune if people stop buying CDs and make their own copies. Halderman reckons he has a solution for them. "Reduce the cost of new CDs; if discs cost only a few dollars each, buying them might be preferable to spending the time and effort to make copies or find them online."


Close, but misses the mark.

As long as the record industry is driven by the business model of producing, transporting, and selling a hard piece of merchandise (i.e., CD) they will not be able to reduce their costs to the point where people will buy the music instead of downloading it.

They will have to (and certainly will) start selling the music in electronic form over the internet. Think what their percentage profit would be on the sale of an "album" sold as an internet download for $3, compared to a CD sold for $15.

Whether making the music available at such a bargain price would curb piracy... that I can't answer. But I know a lot of people don't feel guilty about stealing music from a $15 CD, on the premise that the record companies are ripping them off; perhaps they would be willing to pay a more reasonable price.

tanstaafl.