Call it the last battle of the twentieth century, or the first battle of the next millennium. But don't short-sell the importance of the battle raging between the music performers and big record labels. The battlefield is the Internet, and at stake is who controls the distribution of music. In the old days, the process went like this: singer to record label to distributor to retailer to media outlet (including dance clubs) to consumer. But advances in technology create what consultants call--hold your lunch, kids--a paradigm shift. Check it: artist to web site to consumer. Sure, the record label could have a say on this issue, but artists--including some of the more vocal critics of the music industry--have started distributing music through this process. The technology breakthrough is called MP3/MP4. For those of you who just said "huh?" here's a quick primer: Moving Picture Expert Group Audio Layer 3, or MP3, is an open format that allows Internet users to download CD-quality audio clips. MP3 is an exceptional piece of work because its nearest competitor, RealAudio, is not nearly as clear-sounding. In order to play music using MP3, you need to download an MP3 player to "plug-in" to your operating system. Approximately five million of these players have been downloaded. MP4 is now available, and it allows for further compression so the files can be e-mailed. MP3, MP4, and the next generation of fat-pipe ware will fundamentally change how music is distributed to the masses. In a March 1999 interview with Wired magazine, Public Enemy frontman Chuck D laid out his assault on the music industry via MP3. His record label, Def Jam, a subsidiary of Polygram, sat on the release of Bring the Noise 2000 from March 1998 until Chuck D decided to release MP3 tracks from the album on Public Enemy's web site. The suits at Polygram had a fit and demanded that the tracks be removed from the site for fear of piracy. This is why Capital Records had the...
