Bradley, I read this paper sometime in November, but did not comment and I don't recall if this version is the same one I read. This paper was a lot of fun to read. About file sharing of music, this talk I attended by Adam Schlesinger who wrote the song "That Thing You Do" and he says that one doesn't even need to download a song anymore to listen to it, because when we have a craving to listen to a song, all we have to do is to head to Youtube, listen to it a few times, and then the craving is gone. He (don't remember if it was he himself or his lawyer who said it?) even thinks that no one really downloads songs from ITunes anymore, and those who do are those who got their parent's credit card. He says that, as you state here in your essay, money is made on licensing (Adam, or his lawyer, said that he was really happy that "That Thing You Do" was played 12 times in the movie, because he was paid each time the song was played) and on live performances (one of them said that the reason why people are willing to continue paying a lot for concert tickets is because they don't need to buy CDs anymore). So basically, it seems that your arguments on how artists can earn money where CD sales are low seems to be how Adam is thinking he can earn his living. I'm thinking that another way for musicians to earn money is by getting hired to perform in movies or on TV? I'm not sure to what extent this applies in the U.S. (crossing over from music to modeling to acting happens a lot where I'm from), but maybe to an extent in the U.S. as well like Jennifer Hudson and Beyonce in Dreamgirls?

-- AllanOng - 03 Dec 2009