I find the whole music "industry" thing quite an interesting thing. Up until around 1910 or so the music business was based entirely upon performance, there was no "record" to sell, and thus no record "industry".
If you ask me things are coming around full circle, there is no longer a physical product for the industry to push, which has been hurting anybody who is still trying to hold onto that business model. The focus has swung back towards live performance and not record sales (as much). This is due largely to people downloading music illegally. Which pisses off the industry people. The thing that grinds my gears about it is that the record companies are expecting the consumers to pay the same for a compressed MP3 as they would for an actual record. It\'s kind of like downloading a picture of the Mona Lisa, and I sure as shit ain\'t paying for that.
The new business model is not even that new. You can not make money trying to sell a record anymore period. The real money is now found in licensing for films/ads etc. Or ad based-revenue on download sites.
A business model like lala.com falls someplace inbetween, somewhat of a compromise between the old sales and new illegal downloads. Will it work? maybe, but I kind of doubt it. It\'s hard to charge somebody money for something they can get for free.
But, while the artists may be getting hurt in the short run, the people who are really losing money/jobs are the industry people. And well, fuck \'em. The bottom line is the $$ not the :disco: and Live music will never die. And that\'s why bands that focus on the live aspect last longer than those trying to sell records with the backing of a large record company, if you don\'t sell your product you get dropped, and these days nobody is buying. But really it is a tough climate for anybody involved in Music today, the whole business and way people listen to music is changing right in front of us, and noone is entirely sure where it is going next.