http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d0960f18-4303-11de-b793-00144feabdc0.html

Main article is about publishers wanting to start erecting toll gates to get news content, and television trying to find a profitable online model. A sidebar in the article points to the music biz:

FILE SHARING

The music business
fights back

After years of telling the music business it had done everything wrong, video game developers, newspaper owners and broadcasters have begun to turn to the industry for advice on how to defend their intellectual property rights. The situation �has changed so much in the last few months�, says John Kennedy, who as chairman of the London-based IFPI has fought many of the record labels� legal battles.

Sooner or later, in conversations with media owners about the problem of competing with free content, the talk will come round to the troubles of the music business. In the decade since the Napster file-sharing site launched, compact disc sales have collapsed, wresting power from labels. Now, growth in legitimate digital revenues is stalling, with Warner Music�s last earnings report showing just 5.5 per cent year-on-year growth, and some of the initiatives the industry hoped would transform their digital businesses failing to do so.

Ringtone sales are fading, some advertising-supported music websites are closing and record executives have been disappointed by early sales of Nokia�s �Comes With Music� mobile subscription bundles.

Warner Music�s Edgar Bronfman complained that MySpace Music �needs to change� and Digital Music News has reported that sales through the iTunes music store have fallen since Apple agreed to labels� demands to allow more flexible pricing.

The story alarms film producers and magazine editors alike � but Mr Kennedy says other media owners should take some comfort from where the music business now finds itself. �We do at least have a $3.8bn (�2.8bn, £2.5bn) legitimate digital business,� he says. �Given that has been achieved in the context of 95 per cent piracy, it gives you an idea of the potential.�

Record labels still see 20 copies of their product consumed illegally online for every one downloaded legally. However, the percentage of web users who are file sharing has not grown for five years in Europe, according to a new study from Forrester. A separate report by NPD Group found that the number of US internet users downloading music legally surpassed those downloading illegally for the first time last year.

Mr Kennedy says he sees a shift in consumer attitudes, suggesting a mass market is finally being schooled to pay for content: �People realise more and more that this thing is going to come to an end and they ought to start thinking about what their legitimate consumption model is.�

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My comments: Apparently the music industry is seeing "green shoots" in paid downloads. That's probably as delusional as the green shoots our government claims to see in the broader economy. Is everyone living in a dreamworld? Most flabbergasting is that the newspapers, already circling the vortex of the toilet bowl, would ask advice from the music business, which has done its best to shoot itself in both feet.

I guess they deserve each other.

I have an example of how the newspapers are shooting themselves in the foot.

All I want is the Sunday paper delivered to my door. Nothing more, nothing less. Well, after the Detroit News/Free Press killed the unions with their illegal tactics, they started to deliver the paper again. I wanted only Sunday. They delivered it.

Then, a little while later, I started getting a Saturday paper too. Then, another one on Monday holidays. Then, I started getting a Friday paper. I was told this was at no additional cost, but that turned out to be a lie too. Then, they started a Thursday delivery as well. I called, requesting that I only get a Sunday paper. I was told that I could not get it Sunday only.

Now, after years of NOT giving me what I want, they have decided to cut back on delivering the paper. Really?? So I decided that I wanted to get what I wanted all along... a Sunday paper only.

Since we are in the 21st Century, I went to their webside to make this change, thinking it would be easier. I was wrong. Not ONLY was there no option to have a Sunday ONLY paper, but I couldn't cancel my subscription online.

Finally, I called them with the full intention of cancelling. And I got a busy signal. Over and over. Guess what. I'm not paying for another home delivered paper from them EVER again.

They failed to meet the needs of their customers. Much like the music industry....

To be fair to the media outlets with revenue falling all across the board thanks to the economy going down the tubes this is just bringing to a head what was going to happen anyhow. (i don't believe that 20:1 claim of the music industry for a moment)

Let's face it internet sites cost money in terms of hardware and maintenance and ads alone just are not cutting it any more. It was only a mater of time before attempts at recouping some of that cost came to the table. In many respects I am surprised it has taken this long.