Everyone, it seems, has encountered and has an opinion about digital music. No one seems to like how it's distributed, how it's traded, or how it's stored. The distribution sucks, p to p is a pain in the ass (for both users and producers) and the sound quality of MP3s is remarkably poor. But everyone keeps pounding their heads against the same wall, and, in the end, I just want to hear some music.
My website is an intentionally simple thing, and when I stop to think about it, I am providing digital content (in my case pictures, not music, but digital nonetheless) in a very common manner. It's something the adult industry figured out early on. Charge for access to the material, not for the material itself.
If I want access to adult material, a great many sites will charge a monthly subscription fee. Once I pay the fee and get a password, I can peruse the content as I like. I can view online, I can download and view locally, I can do both, etc. If I choose to download, there are no built in limitations to the files; no DRM. What I pay for is access to the content, and once I pass through the gate, it's all easy.
In a functional world, I'd get music the same way. Why can't I find a subscription music site that, once I pay, will give me unfettered access to all the content I care to consume? With no strings attached? Other than that I keep paying my fee to get more. Judging by the number of adult websites in business, it's a model that works. And judging by the amount of music being made, there's no less amount of content available. Given that adult sites make money because people keep coming back for more, and music has always been about the next hot track, it makes sense that a DRM free subscription model will succeed wonderfully as long as there's always a new, hot track.
