Digital Music Direct to the Customer

Mark Cuban is a smart guy. He dashed off a couple of ideas here that make a lot of sense. I completely agree with him that the big copyright holders (labels and publishers) can act as "networks" and bring their music to market. It is interesting that none of them are thinking this way at the moment, and the old way of thinking is guiding the day. Namely, why do they need aggregators like Apple's iTunes to replace the failing Tower Records of the past? Why can't the labels go direct to the customer with their product.

I have often said that when Napster 1.0 first emerged, the labels realized that they actually had customers. And those weren't Wall Mart and Target, but people like you and me. And instead of embracing these consumers, communicating with them, drawing 'em into the fold, marketing to them - they decided to sue the people. The legal people overran the marketing folks, and the chance for creating a direct to consumer business slipped through their lawyers hands.

It has taken a while to grasp the totality of all this, but perhaps someday soon, a large music content company will decide to get into the business of marketing to consumers, and creating an infrastructure to support and make it happen in the digital age. Can't wait to see that happen.