The record industry is in disarray - internet downloading has them running for lawyers. Sort of like when television came on the scene when radio was king. Didn't eliminate radio but sure knocked it off its perch. I caught the tail end of a round table discussion (I think on CNBC, it was a business show) with industry executives, and one point made was that some of them are slowly (too slowly for their own survival, maybe) are coming to realize that the present way of doing business (putting most of their marketing eggs in one artist and hoping for a grand slam to carry the label) isn't working any more. See the huge contract debacles that haven't paid off. For one Mariah Carey, they could have signed a couple dozen artists whose base hits would have provided a smaller if more steady and stable stream of income. Sort of like the old days - a wide variety of artists, most of whom got at least a shot at SOME airplay on independent radio stations (not megaconglomerates with canned programs but REAL human DJs with their own quirky tastes). That's sort of what's happening now via the internet, and the record execs are getting shut out and they know it and are at a loss to stop it. But they're trying.
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