XM X-ed out?

U.S. District Judge Deborah A. Batts ruled that the music industry lawsuit against XM + mp3 can proceed. The gist? The industry says XM is infringing on their rights by allowing users to record broadcast music on their mp3, XM says their protected by existing law saying people can record music onto tape players for personal use. Are too, am not, etc.

First off, I have to admit I don't know much about the technology, don't own a satellite receiver and don't listen to much radio (aren't I fun?). Given that, here's my take.

As you know, I do think that technology changes things. So I get that a cassette recording is different than mp3, with the mp3 having the potential to be mass distributed in a way cassette's never could. So crux one for me is the exportability of the mp3's derived from the satellite's feed. If there is none, then I think this is a dead issue, if it's there (and not, "You have to be a super geek to make it work") then I think the industry has a point. Unless, obviously you can record mp3's from regular broadcasts, then it loses that point. I'm a fickle pointer.

However, I think the music industry is making a huge mistake with this. I don't know the history of the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 (the act that allows you to record from broadcast) but I assume that the music industry was going through one of it's periodic troughs and freaked out that people were recording songs from the radio, killing sales (funny how it's never simply that the industry is putting out bad music, or is in transition from one fad to the next). Anyway, lots of hullabaloo from all sides and presto the AHR comes about. My point is this, cassette recording for private use didn't destroy the industry. I think it's unlikely that mp3's will either.

However, mp3's may save it. Personally, and I get that I'm probably not mainstream, most of my listening at home and car comes from my iPod. I'll occasionally listen to the radio but mostly I don't like their mixes and few things bug me more than radio banter. A close second is when I finally do hear a new song that I like and, despite all the banal banter, no one tells me who it was. So off I go, definitely not buying a new song for my iPod. However, let me record it on the spot, and I can take the time to figure out who it is, or better yet my understanding is that XM tells you right on the screen who it is. Now I can go by a song or album. Isn't that good for the music industry? Furthermore, with XM I can listen to music broken down by my favorite genre (Come onnnn Hair Metal - make that comeback!). Thus I'm more likely to hear a new song I like and go buy that one. Again, isn't that good for industry? Rather than look at this as a threat, see it for what it is, the future. And not necessarily a bad future, if the industry embraces it, XM can actually help boost sales, even XM + mp3.

But I don't expect that. The music industry is famously backward looking. It's also fearful. Despite all the panic about mp3's and digital downloading, I own exactly zero pirated songs. Granted I know some folks that were big into back in the day, but now even the biggest of them doesn't do it. iTunes is a buck, and it's great quality, why bother? Plus people are basically law abiders. But even if someone has a handful of "Pirated" songs, odds are they've bought a whole bunch legally. I know I've bought more music over the last three years than I did in the three years previous to the purchase of my first iPod. The music industry needs to quit fighting customer service and add-on features and embrace them. Expand the market by offering more, don't shrink it by offering less.