<nettime> Re: nettime-l-digest V1 #1560

[Jonathan Lukens <jon {AT} infopollen.net>]

> Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 06:48:07 +0200
> From: z3118338 {AT} student.unsw.edu.au
> Subject: Re: <nettime> Pay 5 cents for a song
>
> Give em enough rope .....
>
> why not just have it all on the server for free and increase the tax
> or broaden its base to say include cd's land usb sticks for example
> like the old (failed for constitutional reasons and bad drafting)
> blank tape royalty in Australia?

Look. That is never going to work. I mean- right now you can download 
all of my music for free and no one does it. Upping the price to 5 
cents would mean that less zero people download my music. I would 
consider paying people 5 cents a download, but I'm not familiar enough 
with the legalese to draft a EULA like that for my site... I mean- if 
all the sudden it costs me more than five dollars what the hell am I 
going to do? I need to be able to pay people 5 cents until it costs me 
50 cents, and then only pay them 3 cents until it costs me a dollar, 
and so on.... That's complicated. Isn't something Bruce Sterling wrote 
about 10 years ago supposed to do that for free? WTF? I'm dying over 
here. Can I get some external validation through my web stats? Jesus. 
I'm middle aged and stagflation and all that! Bushwick Bill has more 
reputation crapital than I do, and I used to be in a band with that guy 
who was in the band with that other guy! PLEASE! I'm up for adoption. 
Employment! Anything! I will even wear khaki pants! Please? I remember 
the internet? Do you? That was awesome! And money! and Throbbing 
Gristle and the MIT Press Logo looks kinda like the Black Flag bars and 
I don't give a fuck about either no more. This guy I know- he had to 
get this credit card that had no interest for six months so that he 
could pay off this other credit card- I didn't have to do that... 
mostly cos I don't really buy anything- I just sell my old stuff on 
eBay, But that's pretty cool, cos then I can feel superior to that guy. 
Someday, maybe I will have a lot of money- And then I will have the 
least downloads for the most money, or the most money for the most 
downloads, or something like that, where people will respect how I play 
off the fact that my music is unpopular with people who like music 
about its unpopularity on the internet with occasional geographic 
references and erudition or however you spell it. That will be awesome. 
And then I can visit Australia and all the conferences where people 
talk about stuff. That will be cool. But until then, I will probably 
just get flamed, and change the cat litter once a week, and do the 
dishes. And I do all of that for free, but if I was like Bono or Sting 
or something, I would charge my cats at least 30 cents, because I 
could. And they would totally pay it and be all like "it's only thirty 
cents and I don't have opposable thumbs anyway." 


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