(Discovered it when I clicked on one of CaliLewis' tinyurl links in Twitter and Geekbrief began streaming!)

Interestingly, I've been hearing recently that the brain processes digital music differently than analog. Digital music compression is lossy -- it throws out sounds (or color in the case of JPG) that scientists believe the human brain won't notice (because we can distinguish certain ranges well, or because we can't hear one note at the same time as another). However, just like the brain fills in detail on a color reduced JPG to make it look like contiguous tone (or fills in motion in the static series of images that make movies possible), the brain fills in what it thinks it's missing. That, to put it into computer terms, means that it is more processor intensive (brain power) to decompress digital music while listening. Some have said this also effects our emotional response to said music, since our brain is working harder instead of just focusing on the enjoyment.

Wow, tangent-y much?

They're committing suicide by committee. This Week In Media was discussing how "mix tape" models, letting pod-casters use short intros/outros with "buy now" buttons etc. are all illegal and unavailable, yet would make tons of money for the labels.

The core problem is that the internet has made labels irrelevant. They used to make money by extorting artists (giving them money to put them into perpetual debt) and producing bits of plastic to distribute via brick and mortar. Artists soon won't need labels any more. Labels know this an are desperately clinging with all the old media power they can, but their time is up.