[genefromjersey]

That's not a bad idea !

A writer named Fred Reed ( Fred on Everything ) suggested something similar with respect to written publications.

I'm hopeful, someday,a reasonable compromise can be worked out : one that lets the producer market directly to the consumer...much like an electronic jukebox, in which the "quarter per song" is pre-paid in the form of a subscription to a site-maintained, perhaps, by a group of artists as a cooperative venture.

If the cost was relatively low, there would be little financial incentive to cheat ( by re-marketing the downloads, for example ) and the studio stanglehold would be broken forever.

I imagine some of the folks reading this discussion are young enough and ambitious enough to start the ball rolling.
I'm a bit long in tooth ( going on 70 ),but I would be among the first to wish you well.

[SauronOfMordor]

I'm hopeful, someday,a reasonable compromise can be worked out : one that lets the producer market directly to the consumer...much like an electronic jukebox, in which the "quarter per song" is pre-paid in the form of a subscription to a site-maintained, perhaps, by a group of artists as a cooperative venture.

Read post #24

mp3.com served in the niche you're describing. Unknown artists could list themselves on mp3.com, and were paid on the basis of downloads. Then the music industry bought out mp3.com and changed it.

The problem is the music industry does not want any changes that will kill their business. They can afford to spend $billions on lawyers to harass sites into bankruptcy, because if people discover that there are independent artists that are just as good as music industry artists, and who will sell their music much more cheaply, the whole business model of the recording industry goes down the toilet. If a site came up that independent artists could upload their stuff to, it would be in the RIAA's interest for "somebody" to upload some Madonna songs so the site can then be forced into an expensive lawsuit.

The RIAA will first need to go bankrupt before independent-music sites can survive without harasment