Unless You Count That Kathy Bates Thing, Which I Still Haven't Forgiven My Wife For

I am in the interesting position of knowing people who make movies and music. This is perhaps not so unusual, except that I have neither heard the music nor have I seen the movies. See, both operate on a limited venue. The movie was released in local theaters, and the music is obviously performed live. This combined with my hermitic lifestyle means I'm missing out.

Naturally, I've questioned these people on how I can get a hold of their stuff. It never struck me that getting CDs or DVDs made is probably an expensive pain the tuckus. I mean, I'm a programmer. Any hack can put together a piece of software or a website, throw a link up somewhere on the internet, and distribute that content to their heart's content, whether it's worth seeing or not. (You know what, let's not think about that too much.)

Well, it would seem that someone wants to make the same kind of thing available to musicians and filmmakers. Amazon, the place where I choose to do most of my non-food related shopping, now offers on-demand publishing. Seriously, you upload your movie, music - heck, they even do books - and they seem to do the rest. Do a little setup, and then they sell them on demand, only pressing a copy when someone actually orders it. The latest addition, the ability to sell CDs, costs a little over thirty dollars annually. The musician gets 40% of the cash for each sale, meaning if a ten dollar CD nets a four dollar check. Sell nine a year, and you've got profit.

Does this mean the end of the RIAA and MPAA and their evil, lawsuit-happy ways? Of course not. Realistically, their services include promotion and whatnot, which the independent artist would be left to do on their own. What is does end, however, is a little bit of their power. If artists start figuring out how to promote themselves through new channels, they might well make more money on their work that was previously being handed off to others. Plus, it gives artists who may never get the chance of catching a studio's attention a way to get their work out anyway.

So there it is you guys (and you know who you are). Have at it. I want downloadable content. I want to drop ten or twenty bucks to order a copy of your work. I'm guessing I'm probably not the only one. Just please, be responsible about it, okay?

I've managed to remain steadfast in my policy of not witnessing pornographic or near-pornographic content that involves anyone I know (barring lookalikes, thank you very much), and I intend to remain that way.