Convenience Wins, Hubris Loses and Content vs. Context, a Presentation for Some Music Industry Friends at FISTFULAYEN

This is an interesting article, both for what it is saying about the music industry (and content providers as a whole) as well (and perhaps more importantly) about illuminating the role that vested interest plays in stifling creativity and technological development in order to protect current position.

Imagine, for example, what cars would look like today if only we used our inherent ability as humans to create rather than protect, rather than the DRM-like struggle that was illuminated in the movie Who Killed The Electric Car? I know, the standard answer is that the market would encourage it if it were economical, but read this article (and watch the aforementioned movie) for an insight into the greater story, beyond the dogma of Econ 101.

The viewpoint of the author is very refreshing, and may point to a greater trend emerging in our approach to exchanging our creative potential.

"I’m here to tell you today that I for one am no longer going to fall into this trap. If the licensing labels offer their content to Yahoo! put more barriers in front of the users, I’m not interested. Do what you feel you need to do for your business, I’ll be polite, say thank you, and decline to sign. I won’t let Yahoo! invest any more money in consumer inconvenience. I will tell Yahoo! to give the money they were going to give me to build awesome media applications to Yahoo! Mail or Answers or some other deserving endeavor. I personally don’t have any more time to give and can’t bear to see any more money spent on pathetic attempts for control instead of building consumer value. Life’s too short. I want to delight consumers, not bum them out.

"If, on the other hand, you’ve seen the light too, there’s a very fun road ahead for us all. Lets get beyond talking about how you get the music and into building context: reasons and ways to experience the music. The opportunity is in the chasm between the way we experience the content and the incredible user-created context of the Web."