[miz_wright]

Paul, Griffin:

I think you both have valid points, but I also think you both have some things wrong. The RIAA did a lot of its own damage, in part because it has LONG pushed mediocrity to the top (payola scandals, anyone?) and freely engages in cultural appropriation with little to no regard for the culture from which it sprang (see: mountain folk, delta blues, and Harlem jazz for early examples of US music industry identity theft; musical progression and exploitation of founders is fairly prevalent and easily recogniseable). Combine this historical approach with a late-80s determination to grab consumer funds at the highest possible rate by doing away with singles at a reasonable price point (and blaming it on technology costs due to the advent of the CD-era), and you have a receipt for eminent disaster.

There are a lot of similarities between the industries - from respective consumer missteps (though on markedly different time lines) and reactions to alleviate self-perpetuating problems.

Paul, you do good stuff. You have an amazing portfolio, and your tenure in the industry is remarkable. For the last two years, though< I have seen you have an almost word-for-word knee-jerk reaction to problems plaguing us. We can't take the approach that we must change the consumer's thinking - that never works. What we must do is begin thinking in a new way, to provide the consumer something s/he is willing to buy.

Sure, the content itself is commoditised almost to the point of being worthless - and we have ourselves to blame to some degree here (HellPuppy and others have made excellent points on this same board about entry costs). The question isn't how do we limit the content at this point - it's not possible, because even if we, as an industry,wrap our material in DRM from here til doomsday there is still a girl out there that's taking pix with her $50 digital camera and posting them online 'cos it gets her off.

The question is where do we shift our thinking to make it worth the consumer's hard-earned dollar?