But radio also drove sales. On-demand streaming inhibits them.

Maybe that's true—I surely don't know the music business.

I agree—it's a mistake to see art as a zero-sum market, which is why I've been using words like often and might. Sometimes big successes raise all boats. Sometimes they don't.

Art often works that way, especially if you're dealing with reproductions (as you are in the recording or publishing industry). The examples you give are just too unlike the situation at hand.

You know what I was just thinking would be great is a streaming service that charges per play, but never charges you for the first play of any track.
You like that song? Pay a penny if you want to hear it again. Otherwise, keep exploring for free.

I'll have to think about this. I'm not sure there ever has been or ever will be a model in which the the big stars don't hurt their less popular colleagues simply by existing.

So should popular recording artists subsidize lesser-known ones? I'm honestly asking.

I feel fine about it, but I'm rich. And I also don't listen to anywhere near 50 streams a day.

That "exceedingly brief" period was decades, wasn't it? And radio drove album sales, which of course streaming doesn't.

I was just thinking that a penny sounded fair. Back when I bought albums, I probably listened to each maybe 100 times. Probably less. That works out to about a penny per track, per play.

If you were really once like Michael, mello, then I'm pretty interested in what changed your mind. I feel like most people (myself included) can't claim to have ever changed perspectives on something so fundamental.

I like your profile picture. What kind of flower is that?

Look: all Michael Turner is saying is that sometimes a person bites a dog, and that is just as bad as when a dog bites a person. So any discussion should give equal time to both perspectives and if you don't you're evil. IT'S SIMPLE.

Oh, that's rad. Have your kids high five me: http://www.adamrex.com/clic…

Always. Which is weird, because I've never seen that show.

I'm certain I'm the only person who considers Henderson to be his favorite poem in the collection. My Henderson sounds more like Steven Wright.

It's what the aliens rename Christmas after they take over and relocate all the Americans to Florida.

Thanks, Cameron!

Intelligent, thoughtful snark is why I read this site everyday. Maybe I'm inoculated.

No, I wrote the novel from which this movie is adapted. They've taken a lot of liberties and I know the movie doesn't really reflect on me directly, but I'm still going to be afraid of the internet for a while. Can't read reviews of my books, either.