BW Online | March 12, 2003 | Apple's Chance to Get Online Music Right


To date, the music industry has failed to capitalize on enormous pent-up desire for back-catalog songs. At the same time, it has missed out on ridiculously strong demand for songs high up on the charts. By keeping prices constrained within tight boundaries, the industry doesn't collect a penny from the millions of people who might balk at paying a buck for an old Miles Davis recording but would take the plunge for, say, 45 cents.

To date, the top three label-approved online music services combined haven't cracked 500,000 subscribers. That compares to the 200 million downloads so far of KaZaA's peer-to-peer software.