The business models for intellectual property have not evolved as quickly as either technology or culture. Although all forms of intellectual property such as patents and books are causing problems in the 21st century, none is more sensitive than music. At the heart of the problem is how to fairly compensate writers and musicians for their work. It takes Blood, Sweat, and Tears (no, that was a group) to create a song or music track that the world wants to hear. That work and talent should be fairly compensated.
The problem is how to define "fair". A top-40 group might think they deserve $1.00 an MP3 file and they should receive it for every device an individual uses. Yet a garage group might have just as good as sound, and be willing to distribute for a penny an MP3. Because of the music industry's barrier to entry, see Jerry Corbetta's Don't Call Us, We'll Call You (yes, I know I used that reference lately) we don't have economic competition in the music industry. With today's technology, garage bands are able to post their music on the web for distribution, but believe me, most websites are dark. Despite Google's great search engine, it is hard to attract web clicks without outside promotion. I fully appreciate the problem as a first-time novelist.
Something that people might have missed is Warner Music's attempt to tax your internet provider for music. Essentially, they have declared they cannot make their music business work anymore, so they want to impose a flat $5 a year music tax on everyone. See Fee for All or Jim Griffin says ISP music tax only one possibility. The internet service providers (ISP)s might go along with it to avoid lawsuits and simply pass the costs onto consumers without any choice. See - Music Tax Details From Source: "Pay Us Not to Sue You".
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