The Internet -- Good Or Bad For The Music Business?

The Web. Friend Or Foe?

"JOHN MELLENCAMP, known for such '80s hits as "Jack and Diane" and "Hurts So Good," last week said the Web is the most dangerous creation since the atomic bomb. STEVIE NICKS, the FLEETWOOD MAC songstress, concluded in an interview this week that the "Internet has destroyed rock," writes GREG SANDOVAL on CNET.COM.

However, ELEKTRA RECORDS founder JAC HOLZMAN, the man who discovered THE DOORS said about the web, "I think the music industry has a bright future."

Regarding NAPSTER's affect on the business, "I was having lunch with a very dear friend of mine [in the record business] sometime around 2000," HOLZMAN said during the interview with CNET. "We met right around the time when NAPSTER came together, and I said 'There are opportunities and there are potholes. How are you preparing for a digital future?' He said to me, 'JAC, I just want it to go away.' Well, you can't continue that conversation."

"With NAPSTER, it would have been easy to proliferate singles," HOLZMAN said. "You would have had no manufacturing costs. You would still have the value of the single as a calling card for albums and you could have sold [songs] for something like 79 cents, made it affordable. You would have had ability to count because all of the transactions went through a central server at NAPSTER, unlike peer-to-peer where you bypassed servers. Now, would P2P still have happened? Yes it would. But we would have established a principle of being paid for digital music."

HOLZMAN continued, "I think we need to be paid for our music. I think we are entitled to something from the ISPs. They have been getting a free ride on our music for a long time."

Check out the full interview here.

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