FF> But theoretically, the artist should get paid per listener. Or per FF> listening. With an intensity of listening experience factor. But there the FF> question arises: should the more intense listening be more expensive since FF> the listener gets more from the artist, or should it be cheaper as a FF> discount price, or to prevent misuse of inattentive listening?
This is actually the strangest point of view I ever heard.
I should have made the irony operator more visible... Peter, I am entirely of the same opinion as you. Seriously: the academic system works somehow better with respect to monetary aspects. You are paid on a regular basis and, in the optimal case, employed because some extremely objective jury found that you are the ablest candidate. You publish without directly getting paid for it, and there is a subtle feedback mechanism which, again in the optimal case, assures that those people who write good articles can make a living out of it because they enjoy the regular occupation. And this mechanism works by no means proportionally to the number of copies your articles sell, but also due to a subtle mechanism including reputation of the journal, citation of your work by whom, etc. This system in practice can be critisised, too, but it is far more efficient in guaranteeing quality of publications independent of broad economic success and a reasonable and reliable economic basis for authors. Plus it makes (via libraries which of course have to buy the expensive journals) the articles available at almost zero cost for everyone; making a Xerox copy for your use is perfectly all right with everyone. And who would deny that the primary goal in the whole money-and-arts issue is to give those artist who produce "good" work the opportunity to devote their energies to creating art without worrying too much about getting your rent paid? There's at least one good thing in the pre-MP3-CD-ROM times system of selling copies and passing a share of the price to the artist. It is the coupling of consumer's preferences and the supplier's profit which provides, like it or not, a strong incentive even for the artist, and a powerful coordination mechanism which is at the core of the market economy. Fritz "If something is printed, then it is the property of everyone forever" (Gotthold Ephraim Lessing) ############################################## Fritz Feger mail@fritzfeger.de www.fritzfeger.com ##############################################