Monthly $5 Fee to Save the Music Industry?

As of recent times, the music industry has really been cracking down on P2P users. But, as the saying goes, “When you can’t beat them, join them,” – and I think that this is a much more constructive and productive method to encountering this situation. Rather than start suing little children and other practically harmless individual P2P users, why not make them pay a reasonable sum? On a small-scale, that might not work – but with P2P growing ever so popular, I think it’ll work pretty well on a larger scale (even though we only have 30 million people up here in Canada).

The fee is expected to be charged to consumers’ Internet bills, similar to World of Warcraft, and is expected to rake in $500 million to $900 million, which is to be distributed to the artists. Not a bad concept at all, but will it wreck the entire delicate balance of Canada? First – is the $5/month fee mandatory? I think that we can safely assume it is – because P2P is so widespread in our country that it’d be difficult to verify whether someone was actually downloading music or not (even if they claim to not be downloading so as to avoid the $5/month fee).

This then, would result in a chain of crazy events; music retailers selling CD’s and the such will be seeing their loyal buyers flee away to their own desktops, and will soon meet their downfall. Call me old-fashioned, but I like my music on a CD – it’s just got that much more character, as opposed to some downloaded cyber-shot of album art, its real paper and real plastic.

I like things the way they are – people either do what is right, or what is wrong (morally speaking, legitimately we are all covered by the Canadian umbrella). It’s a choice that everyone will have to make, and brushing it away might be a solution to this problem, but the P2P sharing will eventually grow so popular that movies and games will be pirated even more, leading to more fees? What can we expect then?

I really don’t know if this is as great an idea as it sounds. I’m sure I will miss my CD’s, but if this is the only means that artists can collect their royalties, then I’m afraid I’ll have to pack up my CD case and get on a computer. I believe in people getting what they deserve, whether it be good or bad.