If we go back in time we see the radio as a way to promote and sell albums, but who really drove what was played on air? The listeners chose the music not the record producers. The producers gave free albums to radio stations in hopes the listeners would run out and buy the album and make them money for nothing.

If you remember a 45, which is a double sided record containing two “hits” then you have to understand that full albums were packed full of music people did not want to pay for and the music industry knew it. Listeners wanted their favorite songs, the songs they made into hits via radio requests. Yes, some albums have a lot of great songs, but out of all the albums I've owned, most songs I didn't really like so I would only listen to the few songs per album. Why must I pay for content I don't really want?

Let us now think about reel to reel and cassette tapes. When recording became available to the general public what did the public do? They shared music with friends, they recorded music from the radio for free, they compiled albums of their favorite songs they recorded from their albums or the radio. Has the internet really changed that? So I download an mp3 instead of recording it from the radio, my friend sends me an mp3 in mail rather than hand me a tape, I build play lists of songs I like from Apple's music store or by ripping my friends cd collection instead of taping individual tracks from the radio, my friends, or my personal album collection.

The internet simply gives me another way to do what we consumers have done for years. If the music industry, radio stations, and artists saw this clearly they would be using it to their advantage and it really wouldn't require much change to their business models. Internet radio works so why would the slowly failing radio companies not jump on board? The money in advertisement on the internet is incredible, why would you not want to put your station on here.

Why fight music swapping and spend huge amounts of your profits to punish your customer base? That's insane! It never mattered that much before. Trust me, my father had reel to reels full of music he never paid for, we are talking hours. These were recorded back in the seventies people! I won't even go into the number of cassettes and bootleg albums I had back in the eighties. You know, ask any signed musician how much their mansion cost and why they need ten cars then explain to me how you business is hurting.

A couple of things that will change is that artists can now sell and promote themselves. This can be scary to the music industry that simply makes money from their far reaching power to promote and advertise artists nationally/internationally over night as well as make claim to the artists works. iTunes store is another killer, because I can preview and buy at will, which could eventually cut the need of a huge advertiser.

The artist will have some concerns also, because they will be scrutinized more by it's audience, which can be scary for many of the bands I've seen of late. Say goodbye to the Britney Spears of the world, because I don't believe she could have made it based on talent if she were peer reviewed on the internet, plus there are tons of cute girls on the net to look at.

Fact is people, I like buying one or two songs instead of a whole album that has songs I am not interested in. I like trading a song or two with friends. I really like internet radio and I will like it more when it is playing on my iPhone so I don't have to think about buying satellite radio. If I want talk shows I will stick with pod casts so I can choose what and when I listen to things I am interested in, just give my radio that plays music not crammed with hours of commercials and stupid morning shows damn it!

It will be interesting to see where this all goes in the future, but I really believe the RIAA will always have a hand in it. Even if they lose their asses from iTunes and self promoting artists, I am sure they will continue to collect money in other ways, like the scraping off the top of iTunes store, but they really need to stop trying to be dictators and accept change yet again.