Access is the Future? Are you sure?
Posted by Jeff on Aug 24th 2007, 11:16
In his comments about Fred Wilson's comments on Rhapsody hooking up with MTV, Gerd Leonhard drops this gem:
I love music. I love listening to it, learning about it and evangelizing about it. But a crucial part of my love of music is owning it. I love my collection of vinyl records. I'm proud of my hard drive full of music. It's mine - something that I can call my own. And I don't like the thought that my music will only be available on the internet by logging in and accessing my OpenMusic account. It's not tangible. It's not mine.
What I think the future is, rather, is just access. Eventually if I want to listen to some new music that I just found out about I'll go hop on the internet and go find it, listen to it, and then acquire it. It's not really ownership, in the sense that I bought the copyright on it, but it is ownership in that I have a physical copy that I can do with it what I please.
I don't want to have to be hooked up to the net to get access to my music. I don't want to be tethered at all to listen to music. It severely limits my choices on how I listen to and enjoy my music. As with the music like water analogy, nobody forces you to only drink directly from the faucet, do they?
All-pervasive wireless broadband will kill the idea of 'listening only' versus getting a copy / paying for a digital download. Access will trump ownership. Therefore, the labels must monetize ACCESS first and foremost, and only THEN the copies.While this sounds good in theory, I don't think we'll ever go to an "access only" market where the concept of ownership is no longer in existence.
I love music. I love listening to it, learning about it and evangelizing about it. But a crucial part of my love of music is owning it. I love my collection of vinyl records. I'm proud of my hard drive full of music. It's mine - something that I can call my own. And I don't like the thought that my music will only be available on the internet by logging in and accessing my OpenMusic account. It's not tangible. It's not mine.
What I think the future is, rather, is just access. Eventually if I want to listen to some new music that I just found out about I'll go hop on the internet and go find it, listen to it, and then acquire it. It's not really ownership, in the sense that I bought the copyright on it, but it is ownership in that I have a physical copy that I can do with it what I please.
I don't want to have to be hooked up to the net to get access to my music. I don't want to be tethered at all to listen to music. It severely limits my choices on how I listen to and enjoy my music. As with the music like water analogy, nobody forces you to only drink directly from the faucet, do they?