$50 Per Year from Every Music Fan
At a SXSW panel called “Reinventing Payment Models for Digital Music,” Cambridge-educated economist-turned-music-manager (Pink Floyd, The Clash, Ian Dury And The Blockheads, Billy Bragg) Peter Jenner put a figure on how much each music fan who buys music would have to pay in order for access to every song ever recorded while maintaining or increasing music sales.
He said that $50 per year from every person who listens to music would “meet or exceed the current over the counter sales of the music industry at a far lower cost,” but that because of deeply-entrenched flaws in the outmoded business models used by the labels that have evolved over the years, we’re unlikely ever to see such a system put in place — despite the fact that it would increase profits while allowing people far greater access to music.
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