Eureka!

Who says the record industry is out of new ideas to bring customers back into stores?

This has been talked about for a few years now, but I've never actually seen any of the kiosks that were supposed to pop up.

What puzzles me about this whole scheme is that the kind of folks who like to make mix CDs/tapes/files for loved ones as an expression of affection likely already own all the songs they'd like to include. Not sure what the market for this is. It sounds like some VP in an office somewhere who's never made a mix CD in his life suddenly said, "Hey, I hear that people like to make their own CDs with songs they like on 'em - let's set up a service where they have to buy those songs from us!"

Hey, that reminds me of Personics. Pick songs out of a catalogue, make your own custom mix cassette tape. Tower Records had a kiosk, and one of their clerks I handed my list to sneered at the concept, but I liked it - it was the closest thing to buying album tracks without having to buy the whole damn album in those pre-Napster days..

Speaking of Bob Dylan, I remember about 10 years ago that you could custom order mix CDs of his songs from his website.

> It sounds like some VP in an office somewhere who's never made a mix CD in his life suddenly
> said, "Hey, I hear that people like to make their own CDs with songs they like on 'em - let's
> set up a service where they have to buy those songs from us!"

Probably more like, "We can go the customer one better than a homemade mix CD ... We can put a nifty label on the disc! With a song list! And a custom-printed cover for the jewel case! That'll bring 'em flocking in!" I guess their target market is people who have CD burners on their home computers, but none of the other accessories, like printers, scanners, digital cameras, etc.

> I guess their target market is
> people who have CD burners on their home computers, but none of
> the other accessories, like printers, scanners, digital
> cameras, etc.

Or can't/won't figure out how to deal with all that stuff, even if they made mix tapes 30 years ago. I laughed to read some wag after Dylan's "Modern Times" hit the charts say it was because none of Bob's fans could figure out how to steal it off the Internet.

I remember the RS interview with Dylan, following the release of Modern Times. He was expressing his dislike of most of the popular music of the day. He commented on how everyone else in the record industry — artists and corporate types alike — was fretting about free downloads of their music. His response? "Well, why not? It ain't worth anything."

Quote

"Well, why not? It ain't worth anything."

Especially his music. Hang it up, Bob, please.