Free like the river?

What's up with the music industry today? Well, what if I tell you that the present and most probable future of music lies on the web. Breaking news right?
Now if we explore the reasons behind that, needless to say that I am guilty as can be, and so are my virtual peers. Seems like today, everything is easier to do behind a computer screen. I don't have to take the metro to the disc store anymore. So be it. More space in my room, less money for the artists. This is what they call tough love.

All this to say, that the debate is (and has been for quite some time now) on the internet. A debate for what?
Music majors have been trying to keep a handle on music downloading.
"Think of the artists, think of real people's jobs... Even online, please buy your music legally" was their message. On the other side stood the music pirates, eager to share the illegal music they had "stolen" with the whole world and for free.
Needless to say that on the net, temptation will always be strong to download illegally. So easy, so free. I've been there. But not controlling my overdownloading literally killed my PC.
A tragic death which compelled me to take a look at the less rock n roll side: I would try to restrain myself and buy the music online! Leading to the underlying topic of this article: what's the deal with legal downloading online today?

In the past few years, I find that this sector has greatly evolved. Let's take a step back to the symbolic 0,99 dollar for a song on ITunes, Apple's music giant. Granted that wasn't very attractive compared to illegal downloading. Of course, the majors such as Universal, EMI, Warner all joined the race, but were crushed by Itunes' success. The only thing they could do was lower the price. But this involved a new key innovation: DRMs. Probably every legal downloader's fiend!
One would think that it would finally be easier to buy music at a competitive rate, but what many people got wrong is that buying music on a website using DRMs does not mean owning the music. These "digital rights management" are protection here to make sure the downloader never truly owns nor shares his music. DRMs keep us from burning music to a cd and guarantee a never ending subscription to websites such as Musicme by forcing the user to show he is still a consumer all year long. A frustration which led to even more illegal downloading. Music majors were bound to sink deeper.

But today the wind is changing. Steve Jobs decided this January to definitely put an end to the impopular DRMs on Itunes. Many followed in his trail. Now music can actually be owned by people at a more comfortable price (0,60 dollars a song on Itunes), yet the battle is not yet over. Unlimited downloading is yet to be freed from its DRMs. The next step maybe?
Not quite. Ahead of everyone and quite unknown, Beezik is a website launched in June which seems quite revolutionnary. Unlimited free legal music without DRMs? Its possible! Well...more than half of the 2 million songs on the site are available without DRMs. The only drawback is to watch a 10 second commercial while downloading the song, thus paying dividends to the artist and major. A first step which is bound to shake the rocky world of legal downloading online.
Will all music in the future be that way and couple with the internet dream? Unlimited, free, legal? Stay tuned for the next episode...