• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, September 12, 2007

If you ever read about the music industry in Rolling Stone or Billboard, you hear all about the ways that digital media is killing the record industry -- but when you surf around the Web, all the cool stuff you see is being embraced and taken advantage of by fans of music and the musicians themselves. This sounds like a pickle if I've ever heard one!

The music industry contends that digital music sales have cut into the revenues they were used to making through album sales. But what digital music sales have actually done is expose the fact that the majority of what the labels issue are filler: albums with a couple of great songs and a bunch of mediocre ones.Digital music sales allow the consumer to buy only what they like, thereby forcing the musicians to put out the best of their work, or all of it regardless of quality, just to make sure they see revenue somewhere!

For example, I'm not only the industry's biggest Pearl Jam fan (which you should all know by now), but also a big fan of Ryan Adams.Ryan Adams has released more than 250 songs and four albums in the last three years, but only about 25% of those songs were any good (though his 25% are worlds better than most of what is released in the first place by other artists).His model has been to release it all, free or purchased, and see what the audience likes.Of course his label doesn't like that, but for obvious reasons.

The funny thing about the so-called effects of digital music on the industry is that they're in direct conflict with the fact that much of the innovation and evolution of the Web centers on music!MySpace use took off as a result of the influx of musicians using it as a tool for building a fan base -- and now MySpace has a record label.Mobile and text messaging has taken off as a result of ringtones and ringbacks, and the other various ways that bands use mobile (remember the U2 shows with the texting to join the ONE campaign).Internet radio has benefited from Pandora and the Music Genome Project that spawned it.Social networking has blown up and sites like Imeem and Mog are creating groups based on music tastes and preferences. Zude is a new social computing tool, with  much of its pages  devoted to music and the musical tastes of its users. IUMA  was way ahead of its time, as was Artist DirectThese sites had millions of users in their heyday, but due to opposition and non-cooperation from the industry, they faltered.Remember the buzz around MP3.com?That was huge, but not so much anymore.

So why can't the music industry understand this?

The artists and the fans see the ways that digital media are allowing them to share and become exposed to more music than they previously could. Musicians are trying new ideas and testing new ways to interact with their fans while they perform more, realizing that their primary method for generating revenue is live shows -- which are more successful with a strong Internet fanbase!

I was talking to digital media consultant Ty Braswell, and he mentioned that mobile can be a powerful tool for artists.Why not create live ringtones at a show, and allow the audience to buy them immediately using mobile pay methods?I was talking with Zude's Steve Poppe and Jim McNeil and we asked, why not revisit the models of Web Rings and let like-minded consumers interact with like-minded consumers and link together all their social networking pages on topics of interest to them?The music industry, in spite of itself, gravitates towards digital media because it breaks down regional differences and allows for music to be spread beyond where it previously was stuck.If the product is good, and the industry is willing to try something different, then success is practically inevitable.

Don't you agree?