Is streaming music and paying for the right to stream that music at all times for a low price the future of music? It could easily be. I read a statistic in a book I read before that said that over half of the people surveyed that used Napster when it was going full-on said that they would continue using the site if they had to pay for it simply because of the fact that they liked the instant-ness of the whole thing. They liked that fact that they could get their music they wanted to hear without leaving the house, and having it right away, accessible at all times. With that said, I know there are still people that use Limewire or another site similar, to get music for free, because they don't want to pay for music. I understand that, I guess, but I'll go on record and say I'm against it. I deffenetly used to be the kid downloading a bunch of shit that I would not otherwise buy, just because I hate getting burned when I buy a CD that sucks. My defense was that I would steal the music, and if it was good, I would buy it. This rarely worked out, because I already had it so why spend money on something I already own? My thinking was that I would buy the music I actually liked, and support that. People would only buy the good shit, thus making people essentially "vote" for the types of music that was going to be successful. This theory does not work. People still steal music at mind-numbing rates, and buying physical CDs is on a continuing downward slope.

The advancement of iTunes into the population making music available for cheap is great. But there are a lot of problems with that from an industry standpoint. The first major problem with it is that now, when a song gets popular, the 99 cent single sells like crazy on the internet. That is to say people are still buying it, which is good for the companies, but it used to be a lot better. When a song like "the macaraina" or "who let the dogs out" or even that Chumbawumba song that was out in the 90s, people went out and dropped $15 - $20 on the entire CD to have that song. Now, you only have to spend 99 cents or $1.29 in most cases. The whole thing is great for the consumer, but terrible for the industry.

With that said, you have to ask yourself, whose side am I really on here? Well for me it's the artist. But the label ultimately means something to me, I guess. I personally want the entire industry to be successful, but I don't like reading about when bands got fucked over royally in the golden days because they could throw around money on the next big thing and dump a band like Saves the Day when their album doesnt sell enough copies in the first week. The majors are going to burn, this is true. But I don't want to see chaos in the industry either. Free music is great, everyone knows that. But it's unhealthy for the world of music. people should have to pay for it. That's just how I feel.

Another issue I had thought of was that online music stores like iTunes and Amazon are a problem because of the way you have to buy the music. Typically, you would need a credit card or a check card of some sort to buy music from your bank account. How many people under the age of 16 have checking accounts? Credit cards? Even people 16-24 don't always have access to those plastics. But chances are, they have a computer. And everyone they know, knows about free music sites. So the music is free. The one way I can think of is that Target and Walmart sell iTunes gift cards, but that still sucks because it takes away from the instant-ness of buying music online. scenario: "OH SHIT! THE NEW (insert obscure band name here) ALBUM IS OUT?!?! NO SHIT!!! OH HOW AM I GONNA GET THIS? I NEED TO HAVE MY MOM DRIVE ME TO WALMART, BUY A ITUNES CARD, COME BACK HOME, ENTER THE CODE AND I CAN HAVE IT! WOOHOO!!!"

or scenario #2: "OH SHIT! THE NEW (insert obscure band name here) ALBUM IS OUT?!?!?! NO SHIT!!! OH HOW AM I GONNA GET THIS? WELL MY MOM ISNT HOME TO TAKE ME TO THE STORE, AND I WANT IT RIGHT NOW!!! and he/she goes to limewire, or a bittorrent for that matter, and gets it, simply because he/she didn't want to wait.

that's all I have to say on this matter today. All I'm saying is that if you love it, support it. that means throwing your hard earned dollars at it. Because all the love in the world that you throw at your favorite band, doesn't matter if they aren't able to measure it.