French Government May Subsidize Music Downloads

angry tapir writes "The European Commission has approved a French program to subsidize legal music downloads for young people. The Carte Musique scheme gives €25 (US$35) to French residents aged 12 to 25 to spend on music downloads or subscription services. Young people can purchase a €50 card for just €25, with the balance paid by the state."

Comments

Re:I guess that means

[mangu]

for the next 2 years while this is in effect, the online music services will be raising their prices to milk the system.

Probably yes, and that would show how stupid they are.

If I were a teenager, I wouldn't really care about the subsidy. All I would want to know is what I'd be getting for my money. If I had to spend 25 euros on a 50 euros card to get 20 euros worth of music I wouldn't do it.

As usual, the taxpayer gets fucked. And the music companies, even with the subsidy, will get less than what they would if they had reasonable prices.

Re:I guess the French outdid themselves again.

[hedwards]

More like fascism, this is just a form of corporate welfare. The industry couldn't figure out how to deal with piracy so now the government is subsidizing their products.

Ultimately it won't work, I doubt very much that this will really convince people to stop pirating. And on the unlikely event that it works, the question really is why does the French government need to provide a subsidy to what was apparently an issue of supply and demand.

By all means crack down on those that are distributing the copies, but that's the responsibility of the recording industry, not the government.

Re:I guess that means

[ByOhTek]

Where do you get that they most likely won't? I probably won't be double, but an extra 50% increse is predictable.

Normally I'm a moderately liberal individual, and am for the government helping the people, but this is asinine. This is a luxury, not a necessity. This is promoting a specific business model that should survive or fail on it's own merits, not on some kind of corporate welfare.

W.T.A.F.?

One quick question?

[xednieht]

Where does the French government "earn" it money from? The French government isn't subsidising squat, the French people are.

Re:I guess that means

[andrea.sartori]

Not really. If you were a teenager, you would gladly spend your 25, buy 50 worth of music, and when the card is depleted you would go back to downloading illegally.

Re:I guess that means

[IndustrialComplex]

Normally I'm a moderately liberal individual,

You can be conservative and socially liberal as well. Don't believe the trolls that tell you that if you are a liberal, you must be for ANYTHING proposed by another self proclaimed liberal. The reverse is also true, you can be conservative and not... Oh how do they put it, 'view Somalia as a libertarian paradise.'