I wouldn’t pirate stuff if..

Okay, let’s face it. Most of the people who are probably reading this blog indulge in some type of piracy. I won’t confirm or deny whether or not I do. Last night, I was thinking that maybe if there were a compelling reason to download music legally, people would do it. There are a few ideas out there about how the RIAA and MPAA should go about selling music:

• Charge 5 cents a song. This seems almost absurd at first, but think about how many people would choose to buy a song for 5 cents at CD quality rather than trying their luck at Limewire and mistakingly downloading three minutes of silence. According to this theory, record labels would make plenty of money on the fact that people would buy large amounts of music rather than stealing.
• Charge a flat rate per month. I would possibly do this if it meant that I got an unlimited number of music downloads and if the monthly rate was affordable.
• Release films on DVD on the day of their cinema debut. Seriously, no one wants to wait 3-4 months to purchase a film on DVD.
• Product placement in films to cheapen the cost of DVDs or film tickets. This is a novel idea, but I don’t think I want to see a Pepsi can appear on the set every 5 minutes.

I’m sure there are more/better ideas out there as well. The answer, however, isn’t to encourage people to steal music by inflating CD prices, putting internet radio out of business, and go after people who download.

And I put up a review of a good classic novel.