The downward download spiral continues with the music industry now threatening to go after individual users of peer-to-peer services.

It'll happen, but what will happen next?

Rick Munarriz thinks the industry has some lessons left to learn.

The moment the industry embraces the potential of the swapper will be the real start of the next music revolution.

Read more atThe Motley Fool.

I was on Napster/Opennap. ahhhhhhhhhh the good old days. They will never embrace it. They'd rather kill it and sadly, thats the bottom line.

Well years from now when the RIAA no longer exists they will they should have changed.

quotes from the article in ()

(CD sales have fallen every single year since 1999 to produce a cumulative 26% slide in shipment sales. The music industry points to the file swappers. The file swappers point right back, arguing that labels are putting out substandard swill. Let me take the unpopular position of saying that both sides are wrong.

Music is as popular as it has ever been. How else could one explain the ratings success of celebrity-making shows like American Idol and the Star Search revival? How else can one explain that the number of MP3 downloads continues to grow every year? How else can one explain that over the past five years the annual take of the music tour business has grown from $1.3 billion to $2.1 billion? Have you noticed how quickly Hot Topic (Nasdaq: HOTT) has been able to expand its chain by selling alternative music garb?

Music is hot. The CD is not.}

that was very well put. music is music and there will always be people who like what is being created and sold. The manner of the distribution and advertising of said music must change. Every time you play a song, either to yourself or within the hearing of others, you advertise what the artist put many hours of work into and the artist dont have to pay you a cent to do it.

read the article. he's so right, though i do not completely agree on a few points...

well - rick moranis is probably right - being a clever scientist and all...maybe he could invent a shrinking ray ...just thinkint - if u appliead the shrink ray to a walkman/minidisk/mp3 player - would it be quieter... yeh it probably would cos the headphones would be smaller - then again - who says you have to shrink the headphones!!!

check my beats n remixes at http://djm03.dmusic.com

hey - i got a letter from dr.dre and aftermath records!!!!!!!!
saying that i had some of their material on napster and if i didnt delete it they would take legal action - that was years ago!!!!!
just remembered that - i was lovin it at the time - cos it was from dr.dre! well not him personally, but it had his name in the letter!!

i believe that all the idol shows - pop idol in england - american idol in america are aiming at the younger generation - as they still buy cd's, cos they dont know about p2p!! thats why charts are filled with kiddie songs and boy bands/ girl groups - older ppl tend to download shit more

wow - dr.dre is a link - cool

about that....
14 year old right here...-- found out about p2p when I was 9.....thanks.

actually, on the "Idol" point...I don't think the appeal is for the music...it's for the CELEBRITY factor...the regular JOe becoming celebrity...with the music simply being the catalyst....

I discovered P2Ps when I was 12- that was 3 years ago. You do the math.

well - i discovered them when i was 3! back in the day when we used to play songs into a cup attatched to some wire and pulled tightly between two houses and recorded into a microphone - i mean, the quality wasnt superb, but...

it's not the people that are young who are not discovering P2P it's the majority of the population that does not have an internet connection getting duped

I personally think the reason the Idol shows are so popular is beacause we can see people who are actually decent singers singing in a context where we know they're not being supported, tweaked, and otherwise kept on key by studio effects and computer programs. This is what they actually sound like live. That's one of the most impotant things to me- seeing music performed live. When I go to a show and the singer simply is incapable of a good performance live- for the reasons I noted above- that makes me more pissed off than anything else the record company does. Bring back the era of real singing- not processed crap thank you very much. This is another reason I like indie releases better- less of that.

I think the whole Idol show phenom is false. I don't trust Neilson ratings. (I can't get a box, nor do I know anyone who has one) I believe the idol/star search/reality TV crap is a trick to make you so sick of the TV you run out to the box office or the rental shop. Its another MPAA ploy.

It's all been said right here right now. 1) Younger people buy music, because they can own a part of what they think is cool.(And alot if not most all of the time parents front the cash.) 2)Performing LIVE is how band make most of their monies w/ Gate fees, consesions, shirts and trinkets. Less crap of contract mumbo jumbo about the royalites of a song, the songs are how the bands get people attention, radio being the best pusher of awareness. Why else do so many beg and plead to get on the radio? 3)P2P is time comsuming but a few enjoy HUNTING down a song with meaning mostly only to them. P2P is the right of mans advance in science, to share if they wish and enjoy. We traded songs long before they were written down,in a way to share knowledge of times gone by. When we startd writting the songs down they were shared too, so others could remeber and enjoy. Cyclinders traded, 78's, 45's, LP's, tapes, CD's and Digital signals all shared not always sold to the next person, but shared w/ others. Performers know if they give away some songs there will be a larger gathering the next time they perform. The greed of a few is what is trying to stop P2P. We shared before MP3s and will continue to SHARE in the next format of times gone by and to be.