| Support |  |       | 
|  SG: 
 Retail Sales for CDs have been shifting to the Internet for 
nearly 5 years now.  The figures involved were even abused by the RIAA in 
the construction of their "case" against Napster - they only used the numbers 
for CD Singles, which lose out to LP Singles any day (Part of this is DJs I 
suspect).  CDs in general though have been bought more and more online, and 
less in retail outlets, which traditionally have been the most difficult places 
for "new music" to get placed, let alone sold.  The only exception are 
stores like PooBah's which have a huge used selection, and this model has also 
been growing.  Such stores are quite open to individuals as opposed to big 
distributors, if they personally like your stuff. ** acutally, poobah is small potatoes when compared to 
amoeba , in terms of the new music 
bins. there are tower records outlets that have some pretty 
good "new music" sections  (also better 
than poobah) , but this is almost always up to the buyer of any 
particular store.    SG: 
 Despite all that MCA/Vivendi is doing to encroach upon our 
right to post original material without paying for it, there are a ton of online 
venues to place material for nothing but a CD sent to them, or even just the 
time spent posting the MP3s in question.    ** but here's the rub for 
me. yeah, all of this stuff has awesome POTENTIAL for  distributing "product" to people. my 
question is HOW are you going to get people INTERESTED in what you DO. to my 
mind, this is the real crux of the issue. i used to believe that building a 
better mousetrap would necessarily bring people to you - - they would want it. i 
don't think that happens. HOW are we going to get someone who is not, AT THIS 
MOMENT, interested in so-called new music looking for YOUR stuff on the 
internet? before one has people buying your music, they have to find it - - and 
that means that they have to WANT to look for it. this is where my optimism 
fails me and i don't see the rosy picture people are painting. 
 so . . . please show me how this is going to happen. 
miko said he wasn't necessarily looking for new converts, but that's exactly 
what i think is needed before the 'net become the "saviour" that many foresee it 
being. otherwise we have the same small audience.  SG: 
 I still insist that if we allow behemoths like MCA/Vivendi 
to monopolize the distribution business for music on the Internet, it's our own 
fault for not doing something about it.  I would still like to discuss the 
idea of a mass exodus and boycott in the future .   ** most of the 
people who do cds on this list are on small 
labels or are 
self-published. it strikes me that 
they are NOT waiting for the bigwigs to do 
anything.  stig  |