When I hear stories like this about record label guys who get it (note that there aren't very many...), I think to myself what the market would be like right now if Mr. Klein had been in charge of BMG, Warner, etc. during the original fight with Napster. Can you imagine where we'd be today if the labels themselves had turned the RIAA into a mechanism to deliver what customers wanted instead of fighting them? Demand driven, priced below CDs, and in open formats, DRM free... I'm just looking at the market and seeing that despite all the pirating, CD sales really haven't fallen all that much so most people are still buying. This despite lawsuits against customers, disinformative propaganda, and technology to make it harder for people to do what they want with the music for which they're willing to pay.

When you throw in that iTMS download counter ticking up towards a BILLION downloads in just a few years... at basically CD prices... with encumbering DRM... and fixed bitrates... and product lock-in, it floors me to think where the Music biz could have gone. In all honesty, it's probably better that they didn't, since their draconian measures have done a fantastic job digging their own graves.

My only hope is that the smaller labels that are filling in the cracks, such as Everfine Records, the label created to support a band named O.A.R. (who are truly fantastic), really take off. These new smaller labels are quick to respond to the demands of their customers and excited to use new technology instead of afraid of it. Take a look at O.A.R.'s website. They have every album there for you to listen to. EACH SONG IN ITS ENTIRETY! What a RIDICULOUS idea!! The tracks aren't full quality, but aren't bad either. Compare this even to the iTMS, where the most you can get is a 30 second clip, which is particularly grating on some of the 10 minute electronic music tracks I like. 30 seconds might as well be from a different song for all it tells me about the track.

Raul