Everybody can be Part of the Media Selling Industry

Hi...

this paper might contain some explosives:

ftp://ftp.research.microsoft.com/pub/tr/TR-2007-167.pdf

The basic idea is "The platform aims to enable selling digital content by any-
one, anywhere, and anytime"... ???

The system works by having two trusted devices (players) which can exchange media content offline. The payment towards the copyright owner is then done afterwards (as soon as the device has connection). So far it is somehow nice because it reduces the need to connect to an online store. The nice things behind it is that the "seller" can claim benefits for distributing the media. Something like "hey, if sold 10 times a song, you will get one free...". This can be you and me as total fans of a widely unknown band called TheBossHoss. Or it could be your favorite internet radio...

While this does not kill the typical online music store concept right away it introduces a new distribution channel which - to be honest - exists today (copying files between you and me). This time it introduces a win-win-situation. And as iTunes (or musicload.de here in Germany, sorry Apple, not market leader here ;-) shows people are willing to pay for good service.

By the way: This paper is remarkable inthe sense that it is very complete. It looks at technologies as well as marketing and business models behind the basic idea, gives lots of prove points and models. It is worth reading for techies as for salies as well as for marketeers...

CU

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