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Last Updated: Feb 18th, 2008 - 14:39:01 |
MP3 ignites a music revolution
For years, Internet downloading has been forecast as the future of music distribution, but until now it seemed like a far-off reality. That's because it took about two hours to download a three-minute song of CD quality.
A music revolution disguised as a digital-encoding format, MP3 allows for downloads in five minutes or less. This will affect the way all of us buy, carry and listen to our favorite tunes.
In the near future, experts say, we'll download songs from the Internet onto a disc, card or chip that fits into our car or home stereo. A few years later, we won't even keep our favorite music on hand, since our home and mobile entertainment systems will be able to access any popular song or album ever recorded at the touch of a button.
Every day more than 250,000 visit MP3.com, the format's first and largest dedicated site, where they download from among 40,000 songs by more than 9,000 artists. There's no charge for the downloads, and it's also free for bands to upload.
For artists who find getting signed by a major record label more difficult than threading a needle with a garden hose, MP3 is a godsend. The World Wide Web offers struggling musicians an avenue to millions of potential fans they could never have previously reached.
Most record companies, understandably, are less than thrilled with the free-downloading paradigm. Acting through their lobbying group, Washington, D.C.-based Recording Industry of America, their first reaction was to stamp out MP3 sites distributing music without permission. Last year the RIAA sued five, settling the cases out of court.
Violating copyright is punishable by up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines. Repeat offenders can be imprisoned for up to 10 years. If that's not enough, the copyright owner can sue for damages and lost profits.
Established artists don't tend to see MP3 abuse as such a two-headed monster, however at least not yet.
Kids have been bootlegging CDs and getting stuff for free from the radio for years and it hasn't cut into anyone's profits. What it's about is the labels trying to control the slavery level. They're worried because they still want to give (artists) that loan money to make a record so they'll own them forever.
You won't find the songs on MP3.com anymore, however, because the artists' record companies ordered them yanked. Petty's label, Warner Bros., reportedly cited a company rule forbidding artists from placing more than 30 seconds of a song on-line.
Warner Bros. did not respond to requests to comment on MP3, nor did the other major labels that were contacted for this article.
''I think record companies are starting to embrace the Web for its potential upside, instead of avoiding it for its potential damage,'' says Richard Conlon of BMI, a performance-rights organization representing half the music broadcast on American radio. Conlon says there will still be a place for record companies in the cyber-future.
''I think you're always going to have a need to sort through the clutter, a need for strong promotion,'' he says, explaining that hits will always have to be promoted to radio stations.
However, that function in addition to publicity and artist-development can be handled by free-lance contractors. Whatever the fate of record companies, it will probably be better than that of music retailers. If you're a record-store manager now, don't expect to be one in 10 years.
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