What’s happening is kids are downloading as fast as the tubes will allow, and discovering all kinds of new things all by themselves. They like power and the experience is empowering. Bands which can tour and bands which can build a local following will be successful, but as small businesses, and not sprawling corporate monsters. A few corporate monsters will persist until their moronic fans die off, but corporate execs who try to route kids back to corporate mindsuck don’t get it and are burning shareholder dollars. It’s a broken financial model.

It’s the sound of freedom, man. The music industry is dead. Long live music.

Marketing, Marketing, Marketing. Music marketing companies (which include the major labels) are going to find themselves on the front lines, clearing the way for bands that pay top dollar. Maybe advertisers will begin demanding a percentage of album sales. Marketing deals might replace record deals.

What gets played on the radio? At starbucks? Your gym? Who gets written about in Filter and on CMJ and Rolling stone, played on mtv? Bands who have the best-connected managers, publicists, and advertising agreements working for them.

So where will the money go? I think the problem is perceived value and access. If people could hear a song for free on the radio and then push a button on their iPhone to buy more songs, they would. I think it is a matter of reducing barriers to the purchase process, especially on mobile devices, that will lead to more buying. Matt wrote a great post about the future of music being mobile.

So as Josh said we’re all ready to move on..but move on to what?