It's a matter of Auditude

Here's an interesting file sharing idea. Auditude has developed a plan that would decriminalize file sharing by turning each file into an advertisement for the publisher. Now granted, I'm not familiar with all the fine print of this thing, but it appears that both MTV and MySpace think it has some merit, as they have both signed on.

Now, as I looked over the blog that I've linked below, I got to thinking about how something like this might work.

How would the artist have to innovate to still be able to make money under a business plan such as this? Even with the ad embedded in the file, the song is now totally free. Would it then mean that you'd go with a lesser quality file and then offer an "ad free" higher quality file for a download fee? Would it be advertising for your CD, a medium I see fading fast? Would it throw the artist into having to rely on merch and live performance monies to survive? Would it lead to an over saturation of music availability making it that much harder for people to find you?

It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out, and it certainly demands more looking into.


Read more here, http://government.zdnet.com/?p=4160