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As part of the Radio industry, music has always been a central element in my work. I’ve done this long enough to have witnessed the transition of DJs from playing vinyl 45s-to tape cartridges-to CDs-to-.mp3 files on hard drives. It’s been a fascinating metamorphosis.

Until just a few years ago, there were only two distribution systems for recorded music: Radio and record companies. With one, consumers received it for free and with the other, they paid for it. Since Radio stations paid licensing fees for the right to distribute copyrighted music, it was free for listeners. Hell, listeners could even record it if they wanted but, everyone knew you could never quite get a perfect copy of a song without some Disc-Jockey talking over the beginning or the end of it. (A characteristic of Radio noted and applauded by the Music industry.) Alas, that was the trade-off for getting it free.

The other distribution source was the Record companies, themselves, who gladly sold the music directly to consumers - for a price. The status quo of this arrangement sat well with all for most of last century.

Then, all-of-a-sudden, beginning in the late 1990s, things began to change and anyone with a computer and a dial-up connection could circumvent BOTH distribution systems.

This change has thrown the Music Industry into an hysterical tailspin in search of copy-protection schemes, experimental Internet streaming partnerships, and a way to hold on to a fleeting reality.

Something occured to me the other day about the peer-to-peer music sharing phenomenon. I think it can be better understood by making an analogy in using the recent looting that occurred in Iraq. Saddam Hussein put the screws to his people for years, repressing them and taking advantage of them. But, when the opportunity presented itself, hundreds - if not thousands - thought nothing of looting his grand palaces, government buildings and any insitution associated with the former authority in Iraq.

Think of the music-buying public as the Iraqi people and the Music industry as the former Hussein Regime. For years, the Music “dictators” have been able to charge inflated prices for CDs because they owned the distribution system (creating and marketing the CDs). But, with the advent and convergence of .mp3 technology, the ability to burn CDs and the Internet, the distribution system was suddenly yanked away from the music moguls.

And what did people do? They traded .mp3 files by the millions. In effect, they LOOTED the formerly oppressive Music industry.

Though most of us didn’t condone the looting in Iraq, we certainly understood it. It’s the same with sharing music: ask most people if they feel badly about grabbing .mp3 music files and they’ll say, “Yeah, I know it’s stealing....technically” but, they UNDERSTAND it. They accept it and rationalize it as proper payback for the inflated profits the Music industry extorted from them for years.

There’s no doubt musicians and artists should be compensated for their work. In the old days, the only way to make a recording that could reach the public was through a record company. Not so, today. Artists can deal with their fans directly because of the Internet and all the associated technologies that allow them to get their music to the listeners.

The Music industry, like the former Iraqi Information Minister, is in denial. “Downloading? No. Not at all. No one is downloading files and we are selling CDs as never before.”

Yet, as they clamour to try and put the Genie back in the bottle, peer-to-peer file sharing is toppling the Music industry's statues, day-by-day.

- Corey Deitz

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