Radio radio

Doc Searls thinks that the ‘Net will route around traditional broadcast radio. Adam Curry demonstrates how.

Here’s another way this might go. A couple of months ago I whipped up an RSS feed of the CDs that I’m listening to on any given day. By watching the feed, you can see what music I like. If you like this music too, maybe I’ll turn you on to stuff you haven’t heard before. Or maybe you’ll email me about music you think I’d like.

Unfortunately, I can’t share this music with you because I don’t have the copyright holders’ permission. That could change if the we found a rational economic model better suited to the ‘Net. For example, even armed with the proper permission, I will still have to pay the bandwidth costs of file sharing. But those costs will be more or less the same for the artists. By sharing my files, I become a distribution partner. But I’m a more effective distribution partner than a brick and mortar record shop. My overhead is low and I deliver high quality customers.

The trick of course is finding a way to make sure that the artists and their partners can get paid. I think we’re getting closer to figuring this thing out. When we do, I am positive that the folks who embrace instead of fearing the changes will be better off finanicially than they were before. I think everybody will be better off, the Win-Win way.