[discostu]

Rather than going to the RIAA with it they should convince some musicians to sign onto it (and their company) and put the model to use.

I'm not convinced the distribution model is failing, these are just tough times for it. A lot of things are converging to make the RIAA's life very difficult right now, not the least of which is the fact that the music companies have lost their cajones and are no longer taking chances on marginal artists. Interesting that you picked a quote from 2000 that refered to everything changing in the text (book) industry, there was a lot of buzz about digital publishing back then, 3 years later it's all proven to be a bunch of hooey and the book industry is holding together very nicely and still slaughtering trees at an epic rate.

[visualops]

Many musicians *are* avoiding the RIAA. Unfortunately the RIAA still has a grip on the bulk of wide distribution, and of course radio. Look what's happened to MP3.com though if you want to see how the industry has tried to kill it with fees and royalties. I downloaded a ton of MP3s from bands I'd never heard of (and bought CDs of the ones I liked)before it started getting crappy. I also turned my stepson on to bands I discovered and he bought even more CDs. The RIAA continues to ignore the fact that word of mouth is and always has been the best advertising.
The whole article I quoted from specifically mentioned the fear that gripped the publishing industry, much as the RIAA are panicking, which turned out to be a baseless fear. Digital publishing actually is a whole new arena for business document handling, marketing, and a host of other uses.

[visualops]

I just had to comment on the silly statement about slaughtering trees. Trees for paper are grown in managed timberlands as an agricultural crop. Not using paper in order to save trees is like not eating salad in order to "save" lettuce. Trees are a renewable resource, and more trees are planted than are harvested. Additionally, more trees are destroyed by fire and insects than are harvested for paper. If you are curious about recycled paper, in addition to having the use of creating many products from tissue to cardboard, its use is mainly to save landfill space.