Digital music... friend or enemy?

During the past few years the debate over digital music has grown significantly. With technology continuing to grow, it allows people to get information and services very cheap. This is good for the consumer but terrible for the artists and producers. Both sides will continue to debate until their faces turn blue. I have had many experiences with digital music because the phenomenon exploded during my high school years. With programs such as Kazaa and Napster my friends could download their favorite songs for free. Especially now in an ipod world, it is so conveinent that people can have thousands of songs for absolutely nothing. However, it is still illegal, and the music companies are very serious about these offenses, and are taking serious measures against the individuals. My stance is that the music companies should recognize technology’s power and find alternative means of money making. Music is a very valuable thing, but to think that they can plug every loophole in internet, which is virtually endless is impossible. Instead of wasting more money and energy on catching the pirates, they should look for new ways for the costumer to spend their money on them. An example would be for a record company to charge a cheap monthly fee for a subscription to their website. The website would contain the music groups and individuls that company represents, and one could download all of the music. In turn the record compny would divide the sales among themselves and the music groups accord to sales figures. Maybe this wouldnt work, but people should start thinking instead of sitting around yelling about something they can't control.