They're runnin' scared now.  Somebody opened up Pandora's Box and it's impossible to close.

With the advent of this pesky Internet, a decentralized, multi-media channel for the marketing and distribution of music has emerged, much to the chagrin of the existing power brokers of the music industry.  It’s a nightmare that haunts bigwigs of the music business daily, the prospect of listeners having direct access to music, free or paid, via the Net, thereby eliminating the middle man.  What will the middle man do?

With that much money at stake, cry foul, obviously.

When the MP3 format emerged, instantly, like a dream come true, its presence made record labels obsolete.  MP3, short for MPEG-1, Layer 3 is sound file format that condenses CD quality music into transportable files.  A musician puts up an MP3 file on his site, and a listener downloads it.  Upon decompression, it’s ready for playback on the computer, or a walkman like device such as Diamond Multimedia’s Rio MP3 player.

Immediately, the watchdogs at the RIAA announced the MP3 would be used for nothing more than "blatant illegal bootleg recordings."

This is certainly a valid concern.  Musicians and composers must be compensated for their work.  Licensing and copyright issues for digitally distributed music must be negotiated and executed as soon as possible. And there are, no doubt, young people with fast web connections who are utilizing the MP3 format to share music with their friends, as we’ve all done with cassettes.

What the byzantine music industry failed to grasp, initially, was that the real value of digital distribution wasn’t piracy but for the marketing and distribution of music.  However, there are more have-nots than have in the music business, literally scores of up-and-coming musicians who want to share their music, and build an audience.  MP3 is one vehicle.  MP3.com and GoodNoise are but the first of many sites that are helping to create a new paradigm for the distribution of music.

In a recent New York Times article, the leader of the Rap Group Public Enemy, the always opinionated Chuck D, said "Technology is leveling the playing field.  No longer can executives, accountants and lawyers dictate the flow."  

A man of deeds not words, Chuck D and his posse set up a website, offering MP3 tracks--free downloads from the man who calls himself "Black Man Lyrical Terrorist," who said the release of the tracks was meant to protest the record industry bureaucracy that all but eliminates artist profits.

The label, Def Jam, had the tracks  removed, avoiding a lawsuit.  But this is just the beginning.  A lot of artists, especially those who've been spun around the major label turntable and somehow landed back at go, will soon try MP3.  On his website, after the label stopped him, Chuck D wrote "today Polygram/Universal or whatever the fuck they're now called forced us to remove the mp3 version of Bring The Noise 2000. The execs, lawyers and accountants who lately have made most of the money in the music biz, are now running scared from the technology that evens out the creative field and makes artists harder to pimp. Let em all die...I'm glad to be a contributor to the bomb..."

This week, the Recording Industry of America announced that they would work with major technology companies to develop the "Secure Digital Music Initiative," a standard for delivery of music over the Internet.  In the Times, Strauss Zelnick, of BMG, said that music distributed over the Net would be just as expensive because the "cost of a CD is related to the creative effort that goes into the making the music…What’s driving the costs is rewarding the artists for their creativity."  And just how much of those $11.95, on average, that consumers pay for a CD goes to the artist?  Fifty cents?  All the rest goes to Mr. Zelnick and his middle men.

What the RIAA and Mr. Zelnick and all his fat friends don’t seem to realize is that the genie is out of the bottle.  We don’t need you guys any more.  This is the age of empowerment.  MP3 is unstoppable. 

Robert Kohn, chairman of Goodnoise: "The real solution to piracy is to make music cheaper to buy than it is to steal."

Don't think for a second that those in the catbird seat of power are going to just sit by and watch their power erode. 

Hillary Rosen, president of the RIAA said that "this initiative is about the technology community developing an open security system that promotes products in a competitive marketplace.  It's not about the recording industry imposing a standard on technology companies. We'll simply provide guidance on the needs of our industry and its customers."

In other words, do it our way, or you're a criminal, a pirate, a, oh my god, do I dare say it, a PARIAH!