Three words: Subscription based music!!

The record industry has been stuck in the past, they believe music is a physical object; a CD, record, tape, or DVD which you can only buy in the store. If music is a physical object, then what am I downloading off the internet? A bunch of 1's and 0's which happen to be in a certain order resembling music? If the record industry wants to get with the times and profit off internet based distribution, it MUST turn to subscription based music.

Much like television today, subscription based distribution collects fees from all users, which in turn goes to the producers of the content; artists, personalities, and technical support. The infrastructure and business model for this scenario is available today and can be implemented with the support of the record industry.

Don't even get me started on the record breaking CD sales since MP3's came out (exposure and advertising is a good thing!); and how artists themselves make far more money off concerts than the measly cut from CD sales.