Major Music Corporations Embrace MP3 Format

Ever since the inception of the MP3 format, consumers have had the choice to illegally download music free of charge. The natural knee-jerk reaction by major labels was to stop the bleeding by any means necessary, fighting internet piracy through lawsuits and toppling person-2-person (P2P) file-sharing networks. However, larger corporations like Yahoo! Music, EMI and Sony BMG are finally taking note of how independent sites like Apple iTunes, eMusic and Insound have made the music file format work for them.

"Copy protection is not doing anything to stop people from stealing when you can just get unprotected tracks off of a CD or get music illegally online. We think it's good to make it easy for consumers to get digital music on whatever device they want and for companies like us to not be reliant on one particular technology company for how our consumers can access music,” said Dave Goldberg of Yahoo! Music to Variety. By offering 99-cent downloads and free promotional giveaways by mainstream artists (see Norah Jones or Jessica Simpson), the majors are finally ready to test the waters (or jump on the bandwagon). But when the whole industry leaves tangible music media behind, what use will labels be to artists?