Scott Andrew - lo-fi acoustic pop superhero!

I just found out that Kathleen Edwards is going to be speaking on a panel at SXSW this year. And she’s Canadian, no less.

Sez here that Apple may be gearing up to offer a music download service via iTunes. The decision to use an Apple-only format as low-level DRM is probably wise.

I know it’s not an original idea, but I wonder if a pay-per-transmission model like BMI/ASCAP/SESAC has with radio would work to alleviate piracy problem while allowing unfettered access. In the current system, radio stations track and report their playlists to a performing-rights org like BMI, whose members (labels, publishers and indie artists) get a small slice of the fee BMI charges broadcasters for the right to broadcast those tunes.

I can see a similar model for online usage. ISPs track all .mp3 and .ogg traffic (only volume: we’re not interested in invading privacy) and report these numbers as “playlists” to an online third-party BMI-like counterpart. Unregistered files are ignored — it’s the responsibility of the label/publisher/artist to make sure your songs are in the database. The fee assessed against the ISP (it would have to be fractions of a cent) would be distributed across all users on the network. The result: high-speed providers with lots of file-sharing traffic become more expensive, but customers don’t get hassled for swapping files on the network.

It’s not nearly as simple as it sounds. Files can be disguised and difficult to track accurately. BMI actually pays people to go into a city, listen to local radio all day, and report back what they hear, keeping the radio stations somewhat honest in what they report. There’s not an easy way to do that online, unless you have a reliable third party listening in on ISP traffic. In other words, we’d be trading old headaches for new.

Still, I think I’d much rather pay for a premium service that allowed unrestricted file trading, than forbidden by law to participate at all.