Cheeky,
I've kinda been following the mp3 thing here off and on and just can't believe you really think mp3.com is worth anything.
I love mp3's, have for a long time, I remember back when mp3.com and the other top mp3 web sites were nothing more than places to download illegal copies of top music, or gave out info. on where to do same.(Secret warez sites, ftp passwords, etc.) I myself have ripped most of the good stuff from my CD's and made them into mp3's, have a 10GB hard drive full of em, hooked my soundcard to an old amp and some decent speakers, a couple of clicks, presto any song I want. When I travel, I can burn off 150 or so mp3's on a CD, pop a couple in with the laptop, never run out of tunes. In short, they rule. MP3.com does not.
The only useful thing on the whole web site is the discussion area where I can find out what others think of new software and hardware. The software area loves to reccomend the product of whatever company pays them the most. Many of the links to software or hardware companies are ancient or no longer working, the site is poorly layed out and hard to get around in. It does, in my opinion, a very poor job of getting the newbie mp3 person up to speed on the whole mp3 phenomenon.
Then there's the music. It, for the most part, sucks. Like it or not, beyond a few die hard indie music nuts, people simpy will not take the time to download a song or two to see if they like some unheard of band, when they can just listen to MTV or the radio. People like to be told what to like, not make up their own mind. The net has changed that a little, but in music it's very little.
If/when, music moves more and more online, mp3.com will not be a player. In my opinion the only artist that are into mp3 right now are a few that are either down and out and will try anything to get publicity, ie. Chuck D, Billy Idol, or they're popular artist trying to look cool, and rebellious, real anti etablishment types, ie. Alannis.(then of course there are the Beastie Boys that just rawk) Right now the RIAA craps itself over the thought of digital music, witness their cowardly attempt to block the Diamond Rio from being sold in the US. But sooner or later digital music will happen and they know it. When it does, i'm either going to go to the record label web site and direct download, or i'm going to go the the artist themselves website, and download, not mp3.com, there's simply no place for them. They have nothing to offer the existing well known artist once digital music really catches on.
I doubt the stock will go to zero, it'll be bought by someone before that happens, but it won't be for much. Right now the domain mp3.com is worth a lot, it won't always be. What about when mp4 comes out, and then something better, and something better. I personally feel that if they monkey with mp4 too much and make it too secure, then mp3 will last. They can add all the digital security they want to any format, but nothing keeps an enterprising youngster from legitimately buying music in that format, playing it through his $30 sound card with a 90+ dB signal to noise ratio, capturing the output stream as a .wav file, mashing that back down to an mp3.(all real time) Then he sends that file to a 100 of his closest friends, or post it on his web page and changes the extension to .zip to fool the powers that be. MP3 sounds more than good enough(especially at higher bit rates) for 99% of the people on the planet. The more the "industry" takes steps to eliminate it, the more it will thrive in my opinion, but this does not benefit mp3.com as a money maker in the least. They simply offer too little to the existing artist, and the starving unheard of artist, are generally that way for a reason, and offer mp3.com no meaningful revenue. Never have, never will.
Mr. Burns |
