Wal Mart is now selling downloadable songs. Hmm. For less than Apple too. How long, do you think, until the songs are free? At the very least, as the technology gets going and people adjust to the new concept, the price will fall. Prices will average across a larger base of downloaders and the efficiency of the distrubution is bound to cut costs. So when the price starts to approach the distribution cost, why not just make them free and use them to persuade people to come and see your show and buy your merchandise? Methinks the era of the mega star is coming to an end and it can't happen too soon as far as I am concerned. You can only piss on your fans when your fans have no real alternatives. Internet = real alternatives. There will always be a zillion bands happy to grow their fan base at the expense of bands who can't seem to just shut up and sing. Are you listening, Dixie Chics? Springsteen? Mellencamp? U2?
Ecce Homo I haven't done a quote from Pope Ratzinger's Introduction to Chistianty in a while and even though I have finished the book there are still one or two passages I want to share, including - perhaps even especially - this one. When I first began to look over what Christianity teaches, to look at the gospel story and to try penetrate why it has been so compelling to so many for so long, this was one of the things that leapt out at me. I was happy to see our Pope confirm it. Expanding on the Apostles Creed where it says "... suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried," Ratzinger writes: The fact that when the perfectly just man appeared he was crucified, delivered up by justice to death, tells us pitilessly who man is: Thou art such, man, that thou canst not bear the just man - that he who simply loves becomes a fool, a scourged criminal, an outcast. Thou art such because, unjust thyself, thou dost always need the injustice of the n...
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