Hi MATT (of 1:10/345),
On Tue, 17 Jun 03 at 06:54 o'clock, you wrote me:

 MM> Yes, but the media industries will recieve a huge backlash from their
 MM> customers. I continue to spend $45 a month on cds and dvds, but if
 MM> they are hard to use and have nasty customer unfriendly DRM, i'll 
 MM> probally buy indie music and movies.

I hear ya.  I feel the same way.  If the industy makes the CDs less
"portable" and limits their use to select players, then there is
going to be serious backlash on my part and I will simply make do with the
occasional song I can capture from the 'net or the CD collection that I
already have (at over 1000 CDs, I can certainly relive a lot of good
music!)

Although I don't spend so much on CD's anymore (I used to buy atleast 5 to
10 CDs every month during the late 80's and early 90's) and then started
only buying CDs on SALE or through ColumbiaHouse/BMG only - I still managed
to amass a collection of over 1000 CDs.   I've sold maybe about 50.   

I've "renewed" my ColumbiaHouse membership a couple of times when
they offered free shipping for their introductory 20 CDs.  I thought that I
would never retire my membership with them.. but when they changed their
shipping cost policies with a high flat-rate per CD, I started looking
elsewhere.

And now for a while, places like FutureShop.ca are offering completely free
shipping (no minimum order!)

But the typical industry prices are still not attracting me to pay full
price for a simple music CD product.   I've grown to like picking my own
"tracks" and building my own collection.  If the legit industry
can provide THAT at a cost effective way (at say less than 10 cents per
song), then maybe I'll bite.

I think the upside is that the young generation that is currently ENJOYING
freely-distributable music, will be the policy makers and engineers in the
near future!   So.. there is still hope that DRM may not have a successful
implementation in CD audio/video.


...August

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