Derek Sivers interviewed Seth Godin on his new book, Linchpin.

I agree with Seth's first bit in the interview. And I'd like to summarize it, "Good is the enemy of great."

This is true in everything. Especially music.

Overall, I think what he's saying is that the herd is still following the record company example - trying to be successful by being commercial, rather than having the balls to be passionately original and possibly great.

But this is where I begin to disagree with him:

So, if the radio is already there, and music is free-er than ever, it's not clear that music is valueless. There's more music being listened to (not just played, but being listened to) than ever before in history, and that listening is proof that people value it. At least they value it enough to spend their time.

True, time is the most precious commodity we have. Once spent, we can't earn it back. But...

Get over the idea that your success is equated with selling the right to listen, or selling control over when people listen. Relinquish the opportunity to make money by controlling who can listen and when. That's gone. It's over. It would be like a bakery selling the right to sniff the fresh bread or a wine maker selling the right to look at the cool label. It's now a public good, something you see as you walk by.

A classic non sequitur.

What you can sell, what you better be able to sell, is intimacy. It's interactions in public. Souvenirs. Limited things of value. Experiences. Memories. People will pay for those things, IF: your art is actually great and if you make it possible for them to buy them.

True, the smell of fresh bread is free, but it sells bread. However, by Seth's reasoning, a free song sells intimacy and t-shirts?

Totally the wrong business model.