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Unintended Consequences: The commoditization of music

One thing that I can’t help but think as I see the sudden rush to sell unprotected MP3’s is that music will become commoditized: that is to say, competition between stores can only be on price at any given quality level (given the digitally identical product offered at all).

When there’s no opportunity to differentiate a product offering, differentiation has to come from elsewhere - price being the first, easiest, and most natural source thereof.

There are some other factors - like the iTunes/iPod easy synchronization value-add - but fundamentally, a 256k/bit encoded song is a 256k/bit encoded song, wherever its downloaded from.

So - is the industry doomed to go to the retailer with the best cost structure, or the retailer willing to tolerate the lowest margins? Maybe. Expect to see some frantic “relationship building” taking place as drm-free retailers attempt to secure exclusive access to higher bitrate recordings, or specific artists or albums.

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