For several years I’ve emphasized the rapid deployment of new, legal business models for copyrighted creative works. I’ve written research papers on this. I’ve written blogs on this. I’ve spoken at conferences such as CES and Digital Hollywood on this. And I’ve always noted the unifying theme among all of these models — licensing.

The latest new digital model is the idea of free, licensed music on mobile phone handsets.

Earlier this week, Nokia announced that its Comes with Music service will offer Nokia handset buyers free song downloads for a year in the UK (a fee-based subscription service applies after that). Three of the four major labels are on board. Right on their heels came Sony Ericcson with a similar offering.

Now subscription models aren’t new. I signed up for Napster to Go shortly after their early 2005 launch; they have a strong competitor in Rhapsody. Now subscription music services haven’t taken off the way I thought they would, but perhaps the concept works better with mobile phones, as it would play well to spontaneous downloads.

There are some caveats here. One is that, despite the explosion of new business models, many aren’t proving very viable, and few are replacing income lost from old models. The other hits closer to home for me, and is best expressed by Bill Rosenblatt of DRM Watch:

But as we’ve said, the real collateral damage is the consumers’ perceptions of the value of music — which declines with virtually every new business model that appears nowadays.

I think Bill makes a powerful point here. I wonder about the value of music every time I download two hundred songs in one sitting and my monthly $15 subscription fee doesn’t change. I place my value of music higher than that but this is the market rate for a subscription service. But I think Bill has the issue reversed. It is not new business models devaluing music. Music was unfairly devalued by piracy, and it is new business models that are trying to bring back some value, at least in the minds of consumers.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 at 9:15 am by Patrick Ross and is filed under capitol hill, copyright law, economy, education, internet, licensing, market forces, piracy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.