This is not the real conclusion to my economics term paper

[petronia]

Ultimately, this is how I see it: a pint of decent draft beer in Montreal starts at around six Canadian dollars (tip, pre-tax). If you bumped into Thom Yorke in a bar, would you be moved to buy him a pint? If yes, then the Radiohead album is worth your six bucks. Or you could get a round for the whole band etc. but the point is it's a much more wholesome way of framing the problem than in terms of corporate percentages or information's "need" to be "free". Unless you're buying drinks for Britney this week which I don't really recommend, maybe a nice fruit smoothie or something.

(Apparently the average Radiohead album downloader tipped four pounds, which I'm reasonably certain is what a pint costs in London. Now to crystallize theory into equation format.)

Comments

[gisho.livejournal.com]

I like this way of putting it.

(Potential corralarry: if I met Thom Yorke in a bar I would happily buy him a beer, but if I met a guy from the RIAA in a bar I would prefer to punch him in the face. I suspect I am not alone in this. I rather suspect a lot of P2P filesharing isn't about 'stealing from the artists' so much as not feeding the labels as well.)

believer

[analyse.livejournal.com]

actually when you put it this way, the music industry needn't have died! they just didn't drink enough/think enough of drinking to conceptualise the problem this way!

[tongari.livejournal.com]

i would buy Thom Yorke multiple pints of beer!

though thinking about it in terms of 'tipping what you think it's worth' might not appeal to some artistes who like to think of themselves as non-buskers. but when you come down to it they are technically buskers (but with posh setups and minimum tip amount)

[subterrain.livejournal.com]

This government-commissioned Canadian study (http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2347/125/) made me think of you and your term paper. I'm sure you've seen it already, but I was like, "thanks, CanGov, for protecting us by not taking a stand ONE MORE TIME."

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that's really useful! STATE OF THE ART RESEARCH, WHAT.