The Price of Music, Cont'd. On Slate, Adam Penenberg proposes a solution to the debate over the proper price for electronic music: a Digital Music Exchange, a sort of stock market for songs, by which the price of a song would fluctuate depending on how many people want to buy it.

Of course, those who believe in the free market would say that this is exactly what we have now. But since the vast majority of the music business is hegemonically controlled by a few conglomerates, that clearly isn't the case—which is why Apple has tried to impose some sanity onto the system with a flat (and fair) price.

My own suspicion is that we're moving to a world where recorded music is going to be like computer software: largely given away in order to entice the consumer to a) buy something more expensive, such as the computer/concert tickets. By this logic, songs will, from a marketing perspective, largely be seen as advertisements for the band's other products: concerts, t-shirts, and stuff that I haven't even thought of.....  ¶ 8:50 AM