Piracy and a possible solution?

I've been thinking a lot about piracy lately. Why? Well, I've done my fair share of downloading. Do I like to be labeled as a criminal? Of course not. Do I understand that it is criminal? Yes.

See, the thing about buying music and movies, is that it's so ridiculously expensive. Let's say I buy a new DVD release. That's 200 NOK right there. Almost the same price for CD's. How much, exactly, goes to the artist? I'd venture a guess and say "not much".

Last year, I found Spotify, which was just a whole new world for me. I mean, paying a monthly fee to get access to decent quality music streams? I was delighted. I found quite a lot of the music I usually listen to there, and it wasn't long before I didn't even bother to keep Winamp up. You could just queue hours and hours of music, and not grow tired.

So the concept is valid. However, it would need some slight changes. First of all, it needs a wider selection. For this to come true, the industry needs to cooperate. Which they won't, since the whole concept of Spotify renders several links in the chain obsolete, which in term makes those links earn no money on the music, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is definately something they will fight for.

I think basically the only thing holding the Spotify-concept back, is the expensive chain between the artists and the consumers. The powers making money off of artists, are too overwhelming, and too strong at the moment, for the consumers themselves to dictate the terms.

A lot of people I've spoken too agree that paying a monthly fee of, say, 200 NOK for music and movie access online, is an agreable option. Of course, it wouldn't be expected to gain access to "new things" until a fair time has passed since release. I.e. movies are available when the DVD is released, and music albums maybe X amount of time after they hit stores. I don't know, I'm sure something could be worked out.

Other issues that would need to be adressed are:

1. Whether or not we would be allowed to store data locally for personal use.
2. Pricing on the subscriptions, different kinds of subscriptions etc.
3. Online/offline problem.

The point is, the technology is pretty much there, the consumers are pretty much saying yes to this solution (ref. Spotify's user base, and how many of those are paying subscribers), and artists are warming up to the concept.

I just wanted to let it out there, for people to think about. Do we really need the money hungry middlemen?

(Related article from db.no here, from itavisen.no here)