3 ms·

two quick things. on the cars -- horses were bought and sold. trains. boats. you name it. buying a product that is transformed by technology is not the sam

• stdbrouw 13y ago
  > you can augment the service (large margins) or automate the service (thin margins), but you can't turn it into a product. Why not?
  • m3mnoch 13y ago
    playing fast and loose with formal definitions here, but basically because services, by their very nature, are scarce goods -- you are paying for someone's time. once you productize/automate that, it becomes non-scarce and the marginal cost falls through the floor. so, like the whole ideas and sharing flames analogy. now, note, this does not pertain to products that perform services. that's a whole 'nuther ball of wax. but, in our example, that'd be like cloning the musician rather than the music.
    • stdbrouw 13y ago
      This simply does not apply to music, where each producer has the monopoly on their music. Only once you take piracy into account does that change. But then your thesis also changes from "you can't get people to pay for recorded music" to "you can't get people to pay for recorded music because it so happens they can steal it", which are two different things altogether.
    • wwweston 13y ago
      > this does not pertain to products that perform services. This is exactly what a recording does, though -- it automates a performance.
      • m3mnoch 13y ago
        no. the music recording is the manifestation of the performance/service. so, not viable as a product. cd players perform the service of playing the music. (aka automates the performance) totally viable as a product. think of it like a many-to-one relationship. the "one" is what can be productized. the "many" cannot. scarcity is key for what can be economically considered product-viable.