Still, the music Rhapsody did have turned out to be good promotion for the record industry. After listening to a long list of records on my wishlist, I'm going to buy all but one of them. (Here's a sample: Epitaph, You Are #6, Stereo, and Black Brown and Beige.) Of the records I heard, only one got demoted to "buy later, if at all." That's why it is so frustrating that the industry seems unwilling to let me hear things online before buying them — it's great promotion.

After all that, what online music service would I pay for?

Let the record show that I am willing to pay for music online. Sure, I can get a free version of most songs on a file sharing network. But the quality is inconsistent, and putting together an entire album is a huge pain in the ass.

For my money, the record business can compete with free. They can give me consistent and easy.

There are two models that seem to make sense. First, they could charge a monthly fee and allow downloads. That's the emusic.com model. (I'll review that next; I'm a fan, despite its flaws.)

Second, they could have a free or nominal monthly charge for a jukebox service like Rhapsody, plus an option to pay for each download. Given that the label wouldn't have to pay for distribution or producing the disk, they could probably charge far less than retail and still make money. (Footnote: for either model, I'm assuming that file compression will continue to get better, so a download really is "CD quality." Right now, mp3's and the like really aren't.)

Finally, once I get a song, I need to be able to move it to CD or an mp3 player. That's only fair. And if I make a mix for a friend, consider it promotion.

Here's my deal: if the industry offers me a good online product at a fair price, I promise not to put the files online for the world to copy. Sure, a second group will always seek out free, but given the hassle involved and a genuine desire on the part of most fans to see bands get paid, I'll bet more people would join me.

In their quixotic quest to eliminate the second group, the industry is throwing away an opportunity to make money off the first, and in the end, all of us are poorer for it.

For more information see the Blogcritics posts here and here.

A version of this entry first appeared on Robbed by a Fountain Pen.