Little revolution underway this morning in the music industry. We’re trying to sort through our technology here at the rancho to decide what it all means to us. For instance, we had not upgraded our CD player. Now we’re glad, as CDs apparently will not be made in the same quantity as before. Mom has an MP3 player in her car, but Dad doesn’t. But Mom has an iPod, and Apple is trying to hold out, whereas Dad has an iRiver, which presumably will not. Confusing to us. More to musicians, I’m sure.
UPDATE: Well, it would be free, for the "price" of suffering through a little advertising, but the purveyor apparently is still trying to convince the music companies. But if they can’t sell CDs, and they admit they can’t in the quantity they need to, and the young will turn to independents before paying for MP3s, then something has to give sooner or later. Meanwhile, we’ll put our CD upgrade on indefinite hold.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 
Nah, no revolution. DRM means same old song and dance from the record companies. New players, encouraging you to dock and upload stats, generating crap-buzz that MP3 audio quality is unacceptable to fans – no, I’ll pass on this Trojan Horse, just like I have the last 300 download sites from these bozos.
Well, seems to me that giving it away versus suing people who take it for free is a big change. Plus, I suspect it has very little to do with what you and I do. Rather more what the music fanatics do with their money. All very amusing, really. I remember allegedly poor sound quality was the big hoorah when CDs replaced vinyl. Now it’s the rap on MP3s. But if CDs aren’t selling, it’s for sure they’ll stop making a lot of them. Just like Kodak and its film moving to digital. Pro photogs complained about that switch too, claiming film was better, etc., etc. Bleh.
But they’re not giving it away…you get to listen to advertisements. I’ll pay for a CD to avoid that garbage, or I’ll pay for it at Amazon MP3. Or I won’t get it.
I also seriously question whether the lawsuits will just stop. Somehow, I suspect not. Too many lawyers getting rich off of that deal.
But you’re right – it’s the youths that make the market, not me or you. I’ve got most of what I want already in MP3s, and anything new I get is going to come from independents most of the time anyway. So, meh…
The stuff I buy is mostly old. I really don’t follow the contemporary “music scene,” as it were. Most of it is crep, in my view.