some people here do think that the price of allof are not reasonable.
but if the money would been paid directly to the musicians in the future i am sure that they will more money than they are earning now.

if one record is sold 1.000.000 times in the world, than it will be downloaded for free by at least 10.000.000 people.

lets say one CD single is 10usd would be 10.000.000 USD.

the artist will get a max of 10% of the profit (profit maybe 4usd ) (normally between 2-5% max.)
so that would make in the best case around 0.25 USD = 250.000 USD.

lets say 4.000.000 people buy it online x 5 cent royalty per song = 200.000 USD

If it is cheap enough, people will buy it and stop stealing it.
the current prices are too high, as the cd pressing costs is something in the 0.40USD range incl. booklet and CD case.

i see a fair CD single price at 5USD, an album should not cost more than 15USD.

the record company will invest in marketing and promotions so the profit on which the royalty payment is based gets really less than half of the cd price.

THE current system will die soon, i give that system max. 5 years.
there will be new distribution channels and the artist will make the contract directly with a internet label in the future.

online music stores like itunes and allofmp3 will pay the royalty directly to the artists .

and artists like madonna or U2 will sell their albums directly from their homepages. etc.

there are 6.000.000.000 people on this earth, and i am sure 1/6 of that people can pay for allofmp3 like prices for music. if these people start all shopping online, there will be no need for artists to have an label anymore.

platforms like YouTube can do the marketing with a mouth spread base etc.


About windows, well as 90% of the private windows user are not paying for it , i would say if MS sets a cheaper price around 50USD , no body will steal their product anymore.

but as devices are getting cheaper and cheaper and smaller, i am sure that the future is not in windows itself, but in a portable universal network operating system, which will link all your devices from home , work, car , kitchen etc. and you will have the control over it through your watch or mobile etc.
so dont worry about MS they wont be there in another 10 years .

just to inform you, i have 3 computers and on all pcs i have fully paid xp systems and office systems. i even have getright, trillian , and any other program fully paid.

because i am against the ripoff system of the music industry, this doesnt make me a thief...

dp