Sam’s Thoughts from the Digital Music Forum, NY

By Sam [ http://www.grooveshark.com/blog/author/sam/ ]

March 11, 2007

After listening to the first presentation and hitting my lifetime quota for hearing the words “bundle, premium content, platform and rich media,” I realized that much of this forum would support the epiphany that spawned my initial Grooveshark efforts- these people are all missing the point. The same forces at the helm of today’s most sound business models continue to overlook the groundbreaking idea that people are willing to pay for music. Jaded by tiresome legal battles and intent on seeking to punish the illegal downloaders, executives at the major labels continue to overlook the immense latent profit in providing value by exceeding the basic features offered by contemporary options like Limewire. Greg Scholl of The Orchard questioned why, with CDs already DRM free, digital media is subject to different rules. Meanwhile, another label exec lamented that we’ve simply been trained not to pay and that, with the seemingly infinite supply of music, the rules of economics are against them.

Okay, tell that to the founders of Evian who continue to fetch $2 for a bottle of water or the java folks at Starbucks who reel in $4 for a cup of joe. I say economics is on our side. People will pay for value; build them value, they will come. Music is unique in that it’s one of a few industries, other than oil, with enough consumer dependability to render price as insignificant as inmate rights on a conservative’s voting ticket. Anyone with even minimal ties to music has at least one band to which they hold inelastic demand, that one artist whose album they’ll tuck on a bedroom shelf or whose T-shirt they’ll loyally sport at their local Starbucks. Harnessing the buying power of the market value of each person’s loyalty to one band constitutes enough revenue to fuel a music empire. Whether that means Susie Q invests in a Lindsay Lohan single and a bobblehead of her likeness or her Uncle Joe drops $3 on a Grateful Dead bumper sticker and a compilation album, sizable profit looms on the digital music horizon from die hard fans from Andrea Bocelli to 311.

Enter Grooveshark.