The ever clueless and abrasive Mike Arrington says something even more ridiculous than usual. I can see both sides of the Bebo thing and frankly, social networking makes me yawn. I have no patience or interest in it. Seems like a phenomenal waste of bits to me. Musicians uploaded their music without expectation of compensation. So sure, they’re probably not ‘entitled’ to a payout. OTOH, Bragg’s point is well taken – the musicians made them successful and it would be a nice gesture to give back. But I wouldn’t hold my breath on that. They’re internet entrepreneurs. Thus greedy bastards by definition.
OTOH, the thing that really ticks me off is this little comment by Arrington.
…it costs exactly the same to produce one copy of the song (the first one) as 10 million copies. Simple economics takes over. Free.
Which, if true, implies that Microsoft ought to be giving away Vista, Office, and everything else. Because Music is Software. It costs as much to develop as software, it takes every bit as much time, talent, and skill.
Just because you can make a second copy for a buck, doesn’t mean that’s all it is worth. If it costs $30k to record a song (which is kind of typical these days), and we are expecting to sell 100 copies, then this song needs to make $300 per copy to break even. If its 10 copies, then its $3000 a copy. The same economics apply as software. Just like there is free software, shareware, and commercial software, there are many business models around music. No single model is right all of the time.
Arrington should stick to his little blog about the shiny things – he obviously knows fuck all about the economics of creation.