Should music downloads be free?

Found on BBC News on Wednesday, 12 July 2006
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A group representing the UK's independent music labels says it wants to change the way we pay for music online.

They say music could, in effect, be free to customers - with payment collected as part of their internet subscription.

Wenham says she envisions a two-tier system for music fans.

Customers would have access to any music track they wanted, delivered in real-time over the internet, as part of their broadband connection.

However, they would have to make separate payments for "premium content", such as exclusive performances, or to keep permanent copies of songs offline.

Most importantly, they want Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to pay for music distributed over their services.

ISPs had been contacted, he added, but "they don't reply much".

In other words, they try to say that the downloads are free because I pay more to my ISP for covering those costs? That doesn't sound much like "free". Plus, all those ideas about permanent copies: if I can listen to it, I can record it (or simply save the stream) unless they come up with a restrictive DRM player. However, people will ask for open formats, like MP3. In my opinion, this idea will fail.