Slowly but surely, the music business is wading into an era of thorough upheaval. Is it good? We’ll find out in a few years; this is probably just the beginning. What’s interesting is its effects across the board.
On the music side, news that Sony and Universal are making it cheaper to download music online shows the beginning of what should ultimately be a full embrace of technology. In the long run, smart, straightforward copy protection and reasonable prices will revolutionize music. Why not pay eight bucks for a downloaded album, or $16 in stores? Sounds like a fair deal each way, trading slick production and goodies for in-home convenience. Price it right, and people won’t balk at the cost. Some will continue to steal, the same way people swap bootleg videotapes now, but the industry will soldier on.
What these Web-savvy, wired consumers mean for print media and attention spans is another issue entirely, and one that fueled Rolling Stone’s appointing a veteran of FHM as its new editor. Realigning coverage toward booze and babes isn’t such a stretch for RS, but it probably isn’t going to feel good to its more literate readers. Then again, the argument could be made that Rolling Stone should get out of covering starving babies in Africa and stick to music and entertainment anyway. Even though RS did spawn “Fast Food Nation” and other notable contemporary literary works, readerships change over time, and Rolling Stone is acknowledging and embracing that change.