The May issue of Wired (article not wired) points out that the 1 billion tracks sold by iTunes would fill about 1% of the capacity of the 42 million iPods that have been sold. Since nearly a billion songs are traded over P2P networks each month, the arithmetic is compelling, and dismal. Though, of course, people also put their CDs on the their iPods, a practice of which all approve -- but not 99 billion tracks worth of CDs.

The arithmetic also explains why subscription services of all-you-can-hear-for-a-fixed-fee-per-month are not taking off, compared with the iPod. If the iPods had to be fueled with cash, like their owners' SUVs, subscription would be a more compelling value proposition.

Wired closes the article with a journalistic smirk -- "Guess the threat of lawsuits doesn't scare us off, after all." Perhaps in the next issue the editors will explain why it is noble to cheat both the artists and the music fans who are silly enough to feel an obligation to pay, and to sabotage any system for producing high-quality product.

Personally, I waffle over whether the proper term for people who engage in such thinking is barbarians, grasshoppers, or cargo cultists. By any name, it is self-indulgent and irresponsible.

posted by James DeLong @ 8:30 AM | Internet: P2P, Search Engines...

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