What’s really making itself obvious to me about the RIAA‘s stance on mp3s and music downloading, is that the actual CONSUMERS experience is so obviously different. The more they download, the more they BUY. Period. The internet is HELPING that. So it becomes more and more obvious that the RIAA is first of all just NOT in touch with consumers and secondly has a tremendous agenda of control. But of course, downloading makes it easier to tell if an album really SUCKS too… John made the comment that he remembered when artists had four or five hit songs off of one album, and we wondered if it’s another manipulation to do just one song per album that’s pushed – because, after all, if a person already OWNS the album that doesn’t bring in any more sales if another song on it gets airplay, does it?

On the flip side, I see more and more people putting increased energy into the idea of independent artists and the ways they can really USE the internet, circumventing the RIAA altogether – brings tears of joy to my eyes. The geographic boundaries that the RIAA helped artists “overcome” are erased by the internet – POOF. *grin* The energy really does feel like it’s shifting past the “we’re stuck with them even though it sucks” phase and into the “I really think there’s something new and terrific emerging” phase – woohoo! BTW, Matt Haughey of Metafilter writes a good essay encompassing a lot of these ideas and thoughts – definitely worth a read. The old system isn’t grounded in the new reality that’s coming into focus, which can only be a good thing!