That’s the conclusion of this article in The Economist. The recording industry is going through wrenching changes, many of them well-deserved.
“‘Comes with Music’ is a recognition that music has to be given away for free, or close to free, on the internet,” says Mr Mulligan. Paid-for download services will continue and ad-supported music will become more widespread, but subsidised services where people do not pay directly for music will become by far the most popular, he says. For the recorded-music industry this is a leap into the unknown.
And here's an interesting footnote:
Buried in a "music-industry-screwed" roundup in the Economist is this nugget: An allegation that music label EMI was spending $400,000 a year on party favors (booze, drugs, women, whatever) for its talent:
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/01/emis-400000-c…
The Edison cylinder gave way to the Victrola 78, fissioned into the 45 and the LP, wire recorders begat consumer reel-to-reel, then 8-track, then cassettes, then the stillborn floppy disk (originally designed for high quality random access music), then CD, then DAT (never reached a good consumer price point and only linear access), and now MP3 or similar (iTunes) that are medium independent.
The cost of a CD is about the same as downloading all the tracks from iTunes. Music sharing was a big industry nightmare when cassettes proliferated in the 1970's. They adjusted to it. Artists are progressively considering bypassing the studios to publish and sell their music directly. iTune rippers are easily available so you can back up your tunes as pure mp3's. And illicitly share them like cassettes of old. It should settle down to again be as illegal as jaywalking.
Military maxim: Penetrator technology always outstrips shield development. Historically proven over millenia in many fields. Hacks will always bypass protections in less time and for less cost than it took to implement the protection.
Tale of King Solomon (but it was probably an old idea in his time): This too shall pass.