iTunes per iPod

Are all those iPods empty?
At the September 9, 2009 keynote presentation at the Apple Event, Phil Schiller announced total cumulative sales of iPods had exceeded 220 million.

More music than ever
Let's face it: the incredible capacity of computers, iPods, and iPod imitators means everyone is going to listen to much more music than they actually buy. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Filesharing networks have created the largest music library ever, and that's a tremendous benefit for the public.

Everyone can win
Since sharing music seems like it's here to stay, why not just legalize it in such a way that musicians and labels get paid? Voluntary Collective Licensing (VCL) is a proposal for a simple and practical system where you pay a flat fee for "all-you-can-eat" downloads and the money gets divided up to musicians and labels according to popularity. It would only cost you $5 a month, and unlike pay-per-song stores like iTunes (which take 35% of each sale) all of that money would go directly to musicians and record labels. This means that thousands more musicians would be able to make a decent living and everyone would be free to share music without having to worry about getting sued. Check out VCL and take a look at the diagram below.

Sources
iTunes - 8.5 billion songs sold: September 9, 2009 (ITunes Store Songs Sales).
iPods - At the September 9, 2009 keynote presentation at the Apple Event, Phil Schiller announced total cumulative sales of iPods had exceeded 220 million. (iPod Sales Chart).

Fight for a Better Music Industry
This site was created by Downhill Battle, a music activism organization that's working to break the major record label monopoly of the music industry and move towards a system that's better for musicians and fans. Visit downhillbattle.org to read more about how the music industry works and to get involved.

Voluntary Collective Licensing at a Glance
Well, a pretty close glance, but certainly a glance worth glancing. And while the diagram looks complicated at first, the experience for users is simple. Pay an extra $5 on your internet bill and share all the music you want. Nice work, Ren.