[ Thanks to George
Mitchell for this link. ]
“It is far more than a David-and-Goliath story for the dawning
Digital Age: Suddenly empowered by Internet technology, music
lovers the world over are now able to obtain and share their
favorite recordings for free. With digital formats like MP3 and
music-swapping Net services like Napster Inc. poised to render CDs
and other recording industry media archaic, the question arises:
What is music worth?”
“Sony, Warner, BMG, EMI and Universal — the Big Five of the
music industry — earn more than $14 billion in revenue a year in
the United States alone on all those $16.99 compact discs. But
their tight grip on the music market is rapidly loosening.”
“Already, more than 11 million Americans have downloaded
tunes for free over the Internet, evidencing a copyrights-be-damned
attitude that could eventually consign CDs to history’s
bargain-basement bin, along with $7.99 vinyl albums, $6.99
cassette tapes and $4 eight-track tapes before them. Unless,
that is, the brick-and-mortar music sales business gets hip to
music’s inevitably chaotic digital future.”