The Editorials

The Future of Music

Written by Jeff Krasky

The digital music revolution is not going away. It's foolish for anyone to think so. The current legal proceedings regarding Napster are going to do absolutely nothing to stop the trend. It's just making the record labels look like a bunch of idiots. They're selling more albums then ever and continue to argue that they're losing business because of digital music. The argument is completely illogical.

The bottom line is that if Napster is shut down there are a number of other file-sharing alternatives already available. One of those programs will simply step into the spot that Napster currently sits in. Even worse for the record labels is the fact that many of these pieces of software aren't owned by any particular person and don't have any centralized servers which makes it impossible to sue over. Yet they continue to invest in a battle they can't win.

Music fans are obviously ready to get their music over the Internet. Napster, mp3 web sites, Liquid Audio and others have proved this. It's even proven to a smaller extent by the success of online music retailers. People want their music delivered to them in the quickest and simplest way possible. I don't want to drive all over town price shopping for CDs (which has become a requirement with prices fluctuating so badly from one store to the next) when I can price shop online and make my purchase. Not to mention many of these sites offer frequent buyer programs that are better than the in store types.

What does all this mean for the music industry? The record labels need to get over their fear of the unknown and capitalize on this new emerging market. Would you pay a dollar for a downloadable single if it came with the same rights as purchasing the single in the stores? None of the restrictions that they are currently trying to place on digital downloads. Only allow me to transfer the song to my own portable digital music player a couple of times? Give me a break. I bet that most people would purchase these singles.

Let's assume that the average album will have 12-15 tracks. If you find an artist you really like and want the whole album you'd be paying right around where you are now but you'd have the convenience of picking and choosing. If you've got an artist who records a couple of hit singles and a bunch of filler garbage, you'd only have to purchase the good tracks. They could also offer the album artwork as a free download with the purchase. With the quality of color printers we can print our own artwork. Then again that might be what the music industry is afraid of. If you empower the fans to select only the good songs they can't rip us off with an album full of crap.

Bottom line this music revolution is going to happen with or without the major record labels. If they want a piece of the action then they need to get their collective asses in gear and get a distribution system in place where we can get the music we want easily and for a fair price. Otherwise programs like Napster will become the new “powers that be” in the music industry.

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