"New Model for Sharing: Free Music With Ads"

www.nytimes.com

by Robert Levine
April 23, 2007

Recently, a new idea came about in the music sharing industry. Since most people download their music illegally, new companies, like SpiralFrog and Ruckus, are trying to promote the idea of advertising-supported music. Advertising-supported music is basically allowing people to still get their music for "free" after they watch some advertisements. As the article mentioned, this system will work much like the television and broadcasting industry, where commercials fund the shows.

In the article, Terry McBride, the chief executive of a label and artist management company, said, "My philosophy is, don’t try to get people to consume the way you want them to, figure out how they’re consuming music, market to that and monetize their behavior." I think McBride made an excellent point here. People are going to continue to download music illegally because it's easy and costs literally nothing. Therefore, the music industry needs to implement this system so that they can benefit and make profits in some way besides selling CD's or using online music stores because these are just not getting the job done.

I believe this system will be very beneficial to the music industry in helping labels make money off of the music. People today don't want to spend money on songs because they can get them at no cost. Therefore, if they can continue to get their songs at no cost, but watch a few advertisements before downloading, the music industry will be in much better shape overall. If anything, this idea will only benefit them greatly; it can't really hurt them anymore than illegal downloading already does.