Cheaper music in volume is what the digital audience wants, and the profitability is in the volume, after the first song or CD is properly paid for. Getting the first download paid for seems paramount to BMG's plan. For example, I note that BMG is silent on any secured digital download coding in its four announcements. It's as if the Secured Digital Music Initiative, touted for two years, did not exist. The RIAA appears to have abandoned that joint effort too, just announcing it has started a new worldwide digital file identification system, with a Japanese and English partner group.
Silence speaks volumes here.
You just can't keep college kids from digitally copying their CDs to pass on to a friend, in the same dormitory, or on another continent. Continuing commercialized copying is the most that can be stopped, and that is difficult enough. We have visited possible solutions to this problem in prior articles. This is just what BMG plans to do on a smaller scale basis in its single company strategy for download sales. I can guess that people as smart as the marketers at BMG have thought this all through by now.