Your cover story was right: The music industry is truly about to undergo a revolution in production and distribution ("Downloading a Revolution," by Geoff Boucher, July 4).
And the music moguls, who grew up in the old system, are about to lose what they know and love: the way they made their money in the old-fashioned, centrally controlled production and distribution system.
All they need do is to look up from their computer-based spreadsheets and check out an industry that has already gone this route: computer software. The software industry's entire product is distributed in digital form. Early on, the publishers were worried about how easy it was to duplicate their product and tried copy protection schemes. These were all easily overcome. For the most part, copy protection is not used much anymore. In fact, there is even a small sector called "shareware," where programs are distributed in some form of "try before your buy."
The parallels here are just too obvious. In a few years, expect to see music stores paralleling software stores. There will still be shrink-wrapped product, as well as new distribution channels, like Web sites where people can download (for a fee) the latest singles and albums as well as obscure, previously "hard to find" music.
