Word: robertson
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White's is a transformation that begs for comparison with Saul's on the road to Damascus. Grandson of a tent revivalist, White was ghostwriter of choice in the 1980s to the Evangelical elite, co-authoring books with Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. One day, sitting with Falwell in a car surrounded by gay protesters, he realized he should be on the outside. After 25 years of clandestinely trying to "cure" himself via exorcism, electroshock and prayer, the father of two divorced and settled down with a man named Gary Nixon. Then he began searching...
...time that decision came down, the rise and rise of Napster had made My.MP3.com look like a littering violation in the middle of a full-scale riot. And Robertson, because he disavows the Napster free-for-all and sees a future in which record companies get paid for online distribution, has suddenly become a man the music industry can do business with. The settlement deal MP3.com cut with Warner and BMG two weeks ago--whereby Robertson will pay $100 million in damages and get a license to run My.MP3.com in return--is only the beginning of a beautiful friendship...
...majority of music fans will be prepared to pay a minimal monthly fee--around the price of a single CD--to have online access to thousands of albums. This music channel--along with the CDs already in their collections--will be available anywhere there's an Internet connection. Robertson believes the mainstream will choose this limited-pay model over legally dubious networks like Napster and Freenet. Thus far the rise of MP3s "has been painted as a college-kids-gone-crazy phenomenon," he says. "In fact, it cuts across all walks of life...
That includes classical-music aficionados, currently the fourth largest group on MP3.com who made a willing audience for the site's first such monthly-fee channel. "They're the techno-elite," says Robertson. "Also, these people have disposable income." For $9.99 a month, there are thousands of fully downloadable tracks. It's all-you-can-eat Pavarotti, Itzhak Perlman and London Symphony. A second channel for children featuring fairy tales and nursery rhymes as well as songs is set for launch in July...
Suddenly it seems the once radical Robertson is offering a third way between the rigid order of the old world and the chaos of Napster, a chance to make money out of wide but shallow channels of online music and still make a buck or two selling CDs in stores. That should be music to the dinosaurs' ears...