"The sad thing is that CDs and downloads could have
coexisted peacefully and profitably. The current state of affairs is largely
the result of shortsightedness and boneheadedness by the major record labels
and the Recording Industry Association of America, who managed to achieve the
opposite of everything they wanted in trying to keep the music business
prospering. The association is like a gardener who tried to rid his lawn of
weeds and wound up killing the trees instead….
"The major labels wanted to kill the single. Instead
they killed the album. The association wanted to kill Napster. Instead it
killed the compact disc. And today it’s not just record stores that are in
trouble, but the labels themselves, now belatedly embracing the Internet
revolution without having quite figured out how to make it pay.
"At this point, it may be too late to win back
disgruntled music lovers no matter what they do. As one music industry lawyer,
Ken Hertz, said recently, 'The consumer’s conscience, which is all we had left,
that’s gone, too.'"
-– Tony Sachs and Sal Nunziato (owners of an online music
retail business and former operators of a bricks-and-mortar music store),
"Spinning
Into Oblivion" (contributed opinion piece), The New York Times, Apr.
5, 2007.
"You maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn
you all to hell!"
-– "George Taylor" (the U.S. astronaut played by Charlton Heston), Planet of the Apes (movie),
1968.
