[NewMusic] We have cookies! (was Poopoganda)

[Sarah - 21 Grand]

But the thing with Myspace, and youtube, and the other services and sites
that define "web 2.0" is that you - the user - the customer, essentially -
are not making money for these companies by paying money, but essentially by
doing work for free.

Compare it to radio or, something that combines music and socializing - a
nightclub. The radio station and the nightclub pay for the music - let's
leave aside the issue of whether the payment reaches the musicians and the
retarded way that entities like ASCAP calculate royalties - myspace doesn't.
Your standard TV network or cable channel pays for its programming, youtube
doesn't. 

Certainly you - the musician on myspace - benefit from it as well. I think
the question is how you frame the choice to have a myspace page. Is it a
similar type of choice as what brand of beverage to consume or whether to
subscribe to a particular magazine, newspaper, or cell phone service ... Or
is it closer to choosing whether to have a phone. Essentially, is myspace
one of those monopolies like the garbage company or the electric company
that you pretty much are stuck dealing with for the sake of efficiency
and/or normative behavior?

>From the perspective of a venue proprietor - I feel the same way about
having a myspace page as I did about listing events in the weeklies owned by
New Times - (now Village Voice media, and the East Bay Express is no longer
owned by them, but their music coverage got crappier when they went
independent - sigh.) I wasn't going to pay to take out ads in said papers,
but, yes, I'd send them listing info, and they'd list my events, and those
listings do contribute to their revenue and allow them to continue building
their brand of asshole-libertarian journalism and eliminating jobs for local
writers and driving local papers out of business.

But I agree with Matt Goodheart - I'm just wondering when the advertising
revenue is going to shrink and waiting to see what the new "business model"
is.

sl 

Phillip postulated:
And I would remind you: I'M NOT PAYING FOR IT.  I'm not giving Murdoch a
cent to have a MS page. They minute they charge to be on it, I'm gone.