Everyone who listens to music needs to READ THIS!

[Scootaloo]

10. Unfortunately, there's no way to contain information

When you release a song, it's out there. Doesn't matter if someone's catching it on their cassette tape, or in an mp3, once you release it it's out of your hands.

That's just the practical fact of it, and it's been true ever since music started - One wonders if the troubadours of old smashed lutes over each others' heads over proprietary songs. Granted modern technology has brought the ability to "steal" a song to the hands of those who don't have musical skill themselves, but the concept is the same.

And it's not going to go away. It's really, truly not. The technology and ability is here, and it's only going to grow more advanced. The "industry" is going to have to find some way to adapt. Buying one song at a time or digital albums at a discount is a good idea, but it has some flaws; One of the problems with iTunes is that it's pretty user-unfriendly for anyone not using an iPod. I can only play my iTunes in the iTunes player and if I want them on a different computer or device, I have to buy them a second time. And I can't burn them to a CD for my car, either.

On the other hand, I have a paid Pandora subscription, and my little Pandora player is constantly going when I'm not watching a movie or otherwise needing my headphones free. The artists featured get their license royalties, I get a compact easy player that plays what I want more or less when I want it, everyone's happy.

The invention of the studio system took music from "I do this because I like music, and sometimes people tip me" to "I do this for a living." The internet and its attendant technologies are going to force another similar major change, and telling people "buy our outdated and user-unfriendly technology or else!" just isn't going to help anything.