The future of MP3

Right now mp3 is changing the way we receive and listen to music. As internet technology becomes more advanced people are finding ways to make everything for free. For example, long distance calls can be made from internet sites, maps can be downloaded for anywhere in the country, even internet service itself can now be free. Whether it is for profit or fun, internet savvy computer programers are finding ways to undermine the 'old economy'. New laws can not be passed fast enough to stop the internet revolution. Napster is actually using a recent law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act as a defense to the pending lawsuit it faces with the Recording Industry Association of America. Even if Napster is eventually shut down, there are other programs available right now that can not be stopped so easily. Gnutella is a file sharing program that links individual computers together without a centralized server. Since Gnutella can share any file type, people are claiming that movies will be distributed in the same way once broadband internet access becomes available in more areas.
The bottom line is that the music industry is going to have to adapt to new technology. One way would be find another way to make money on recorded music than just selling CD's. For example, many online retailers are losing money on their merchandise in order to be competitive but are making up for this loss by selling ad space on there sites. Even if they can't stop people from sharing copyrighted music, people will still by CD's. It is much easier to purchase a CD than find and download every song on that CD and put it on a recordable media. Mp3 sharing poses the bigest threat to music singles since the consumer is only interested in one song. It also poses a threat to an artist who releases 1 or 2 good songs from their CD but the rest of their CD sounds like it was recorded in two days. The recording industry has to evolve and figure out how to use new technology to make money instead of clinging on to the past. If they don't figure out how to use digital media to their advantage, they will be left behind in the new millennium.