I've ruminated on this for a few days and now feel ready to put my oar in. As far as illegal distribution goes, MP3 is not much different, from the standpoint of royalty payments, than any other form of music distribution. If people want to be dishonest they will be. I see MP3 more as extending power that previously was concentrated in the hands of a few (well-capitalized) corporations to the masses. Just as the internet has done for news/opinion publishing, it will now do for music publishing. It's been said that freedom of the press applies only to those who have presses. In the past, presses have been expensive enough that few have had them. The internet, being a virtual and affordable press, has given multitudes the freedom of the press. Now the freedom to press records is available. What does it mean to the musician? I see three types of musicians who can benefit from distribution of MP3 files over the internet. First, there is the musician who just wants to be heard and doesn't much care about being paid. They can now afford to distribute their music for cheap. Second is the musician who wants to be paid but has not the fame to interest a publishing company. They can submit their music in MP3 to an internet distributor who can track downloads of their files. The musician can gain exposure and have documentary proof of it. One mechanism for paying these people would be to allow the consumer to download part of a song for free, but be required to pay a fair price for the whole song. This could be easily implemented. Furthermore, the sales could be automatically tracked and royalties fairly distributed. Third, there are the established musicians who can command a price for their music already. For them, the internet and MP3 are just another form of radio/MTV - another broadcast medium on which to display their wares (softwares in this case :)) and another marketing outlet. Again, we have the technology to track the sales and distribute the royalties.

Piracy will continue to be a problem. The music industry has survived it, the software industry has survived it, I see no reason why their love-child will not survive it.

As for displacing CD's: As I mentioned above, I've been waiting for 20 years or more for music to be distributed in a solid state form (no moving parts). MP3 software technology and flash memory hardware technology represent the initial flowering of this hope. Does anyone else see the advantage of this?

Jon W.