JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Mentor Questions Forum Newsweek Interview with Michael Laskow

Rod,

You have it right. The only thing that's a bit fuzzy is that we have 2 models being discussed here. One is the theory/idea that Laskow put forward which involves the artist/writer getting a penny per play from the subscription fees collected. That's different than the REALITY of what Virgin Digital is doing. I am not sure what the pay format is for the tracks that people download into their compatible players for the month. What is interesting about the reality of what Virgin Digital is doing is that it proves some of the naysayers earlier in this discussion wrong. They said it would never be possible to do this. It didn't take long to prove that they're already wrong. That said, it's still not a "Cell phone" type of service. You'll still have to get requested tracks into a player to take with you. But the rest of the package is there. On demand. Track at a time purchases. Album purchases and tons and tons of streaming playlists. Just Plain Folks Artists, as selected via our Music Awards process, will get a LOT of attention on this huge service. In fact, I am not sure any other service will give front page converage to indie artists like we'll see with our partnership with Virgin Digital. It's pretty exciting.

Now, we'll have to see if it goes to the Laskow type model or something else to get compensation. But the filter portion of it is already here. JPF is already there.

Brian