Comment by Balazs Bodo, posted March 3, 2007 - 11:42pm
I think the most troublesome group of downloaders from an industry perspective is not fans (as they mostly care about the artists well being), or compulsive mp3 collectors (who would not be on the market of cds anyway), but the group industry people refer to as 'consumers'.
Where music is a product and the artist is an artisan working for hire what you get is a mass of detached consumers who make their consumption decisions based on price alone.
I think the most troublesome group of downloaders from an industry perspective is not fans (as they mostly care about the artists well being), or compulsive mp3 collectors (who would not be on the market of cds anyway), but the group industry people refer to as 'consumers'.
Where music is a product and the artist is an artisan working for hire what you get is a mass of detached consumers who make their consumption decisions based on price alone.
Maybe it is time to reread Walter Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (http://bid.berkeley.edu/bidclass/readings/benjamin.html) from this perspective.