Blunders of the Traditional Music Industry in the Age of Technology

I found a really entertaining post by David Leichhardt that raises a few key questions revolving around the peculiar current behavior of the music industry, and how intellectual property is sold as a physical product. The blogger prefaces his punch with an account of a purchase he made in which he simply “handed over cash for a physical product,” in this case, a music CD.

“No, cries the music industry, you are bound by the licensing agreement that you did not sign and that we cannot produce for inspection.”

His purpose was to illustrate the bizarre conditions that what he just purchased was, in effect, not really his. The reality is he purchased a user license agreement, which he never agreed to, and can’t even be read.
The blunder, however, reveals itself in the following situation where the CD has been scratched and can no longer be listened to. Under the assumption that indeed his previous purchase is “a license agreement” for personal use, he deduces that he should be able to “reacquire [his] content, especially since it is digital data and can be produced an unlimited number of times at virtually no cost.”

“No, cries the music industry, you bought a product, not a license. You are not entitled to a free replacement, you need to buy it all over again. And when you do, you will be covered by another identical license. Until something happens to this new physical medium.”

It is interesting that either way, the customer is the one who loses. Not only is your product prone to physical corruption, but also its replacement, at literally zero cost, is not offered as a solution. When you buy a CD, you make a contribution to the artist and the effort of its distribution. In return you receive an agreement granting you access to listen to the songs. The instability of the medium works to the advantage of the music industry. When a medium is damaged, customers are required to once again contribute to the artist and the effort of its distribution.

This problem is, of course, weakened by the shift of “music user agreement packages” being sold purely in data form on the internet. I’m only assuming that these online companies would set up an account based structure in which previously purchased songs could be re-downloaded infinitely upon request. What a novel idea it would be, if the traditional music industry functioned in a similar fashion. I think this illustrates one of the many reasons that the traditional music is a dying breed.