Music is dead.
Not music in the artistic sense, but music in the "steal money from people who enjoy our records" sense.
Until the late '90s, the formula for making money in the record industry was simple: You always make money. When Napster came out in 1999, traditional record companies feared implosion.
Gone were the days of charging people ,18.99 for a CD when they could get the songs they wanted for free. Of course, this new music delivery system for poor college students didn't last very long after the federal government stepped in.
Killing a man is bad enough, but listening to Chumbawamba's "Tubthumping" could net you 20 years in prison.
Those of us who didn't want to have to explain their sentence to a cell mate began looking for other purchasing options. Napster and the Internet in general proved the value of selling music song by song, and thus, titan iTunes was born.
"Finally, a company that cared about the state of music," Apple enthusiasts would proclaim from the highest of soapboxes. With the combination of the iPod and iTunes, Apple became a friendly company. We all thought Apple could live forever, because they seemingly took a stand against the greedy corporations of the past.
Elvis may have fooled America with his stance against The Beatles' drug culture, but he still died from an overdose.
We should have forseen the death of iTunes when we noticed its use of Digital Rights Management protection on their MP3s. DRM uses computer code in an attempt to keep us from sharing our music.
Not only could people not move their own files around, they couldn't share them with others. iTunes recently acknowledged its mistake by offering MP3s without DRM restrictions for 30 cents more than normal price, but it's too late.
It's the natural life cycle of every type of technology - people use it until they get pissed, and then they find something better.
The music industry is finally getting wise. According to a recent report from BusinessWeek, CEO Doug Morris of Universal Music, one of the largest record companies in the world, has had it with Apple's restrictive nature.
He's trying to team up with Sony BMG and Warner Music Group to create an industry-run subscription service.
This subscription service wouldn't be much of a threat to Apple if Universal, Sony, and Warner didn't own 75 percent of all music sold in the United States.
In essence, music companies would charge a subscription fee for their music. Verizon and other MP3 manufacturers would pay this monthly fee, and as a result could give away music for free to customers who purchase a player.
Even if these negotiations don't pan out, businesses will start to leverage sales with advertising dollars to bring down prices.
If CDs stick around for a while, you'll start to see ads for McDonald's or Coke on the backs of every CD case. If MP3s become even more important, you may see Windows Media Player replaced by a General Motors / Kanye West media player.
Regardless of what happens next, music will become cheaper for us while remaining profitable to those who sell it. As long as there are people listening to music, there will be bands making a living playing it for them.
Music itself will never die, but the companies that try to exploit it are on their way out.
Kyle Cox is a junior majoring in marketing and anthropology. His column appears on Tuesdays.
