(This might be obvious to everybody but I’ll babble it anyway)
Whether the music industry are screwing the consumer or being screwed by the consumer I think theres a bigger picture.
Record companies historically made their business by discovering or creating talent, then marketing the talent to millions, and finally distributing their product.
As it turns out there is now something much bigger than them that can do all those things even better, more efficiently and in a more democratic process. I dont need to tell you what that is.
But what will become of the poor millionaire musicians now if their music was freely traded? Well it turns out they make a LOT of their money from tours (so much the record companies try to get a piece of it)
There probably is a hard limit to touring (factors of time and audience size) so Britneys unrealized extra millions will probably distribute out over smaller acts.
This will hurt the talent that prefers to stay in the studio or maybe they can figure something else out after the boy bands are crashing and burning without relentless record company marketing and promotion.

Mike, you really need to let go of this vehement attitude you have towards music companies and their policies. Yes, they suck. I constantly have this picture of you writing your take on articles concerning music sharing/RIAA etc and see you raving at your keyboard and getting worked up in a lather.

Take a pill dude. The music companies will eventually get it or die. And if they die, you can dance on their graves then.

Y’know kids, there *are* (gasp) artists out here worth a listen AND YOUR MONEY….
Mike: I appreciate the ear-to-the-ground Techdirt has on the music biz. We’re in an interesting time for music artists, as a new medium (internet) is becoming the de-facto delivery infrastructure for a growing population of music lovers all over the world.
What the exact implications are for business models (read: how money gets from consumer to artists and points in between) and artists themselves is yet to be seen. One aspect I find particularly exciting is how the web has given artists a great deal of personal control over how their music is marketed, consumed, etc.
The immediate difficulty is one of physics. Literally, there is more recorded music in the human catalog than can be heard in a single lifetime. In other words: competition for your eardrums is significant. An accompanying difficulty (especially in the internet age) is finding new music and artists. Because the bar of entry to the musical marketplace is lower than ever before, more people are producing music and making it publicly available.
Traditionally, it is the role of record labels and publishers to act as a filter – theoretically choosing only the most fit artists for public exposure. What has yet to emerge on the internet is a relatively consistent filtering standard, in the form of a rating system or simply a stamp-of-approval, that promises a potential listener they’re not about to waste their time listening to some kid and his first foray into ACID loops.
Currently, the best that’s available is word-of-mouth (in the currency of the internet, that means hyperlinks).
The last major piece of this puzzle to be figured out, however, is the money. Again, there’s not really a reliable micro-payment system in place yet (PayPal is getting there) that allows patrons to directly support artists. We’re still pretty much relegated to pressing our music onto shiny plastic discs and then selling the disc at a markup to create income. At some point in the near future, all these elements will fuse into *something* that will allow music fans to find new music that’s listenable *AND* provide a simple, secure means for listeners to support the artists whos work they enjoy.
I really, really look forward to that day.

Having just signed up to study music at university I have found this forum very interesting. It has spanned over four years and is a great insight into the progression made with the rise of music downloading. I have to say that although a lot of new bands/solo artists that have immerged into the music scene of late are (painfully) non-talented, there is still a lot of hope for the future of music! With new bands such as The Killers, who have amazing musical talent and sound like they have been around an eternity, and old artists still producing very good and exciting stuff, like U2, for instance, I really don’t agree that the music industry is “dying” any time soon, if ever! Music downloading is the way of the future. Just like in many industries, musicians will have to come to terms with the rise of the powerful internet, and so, should try and take advantage of this as much as possible. iTunes I think is a great success for the music industry. Artists can benefit from receiving good publicity and at the same time can track really well how their sales are doing. There is still a lot of money to be made out of this process. Having said that, however, there are loose ends that need to be tied, and maybe there always will be, but resolutions can be found. It’s all about working towards the future and following the trends of technology.