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Yes, the business models in virtually the entire cultural industry are changing. (Just think of how things are for traditional distributors in a digital world.)
In terms of the music industry, we've gone from a model based predominately on a product unit consumption: most revenues, I imagine, came from this, the selling of "albums." But now you have the free Internet. But you also get a number of other changes. But first, isn't it interesting how there are many individuals who would rather die than pay $0.99 for a song track when it can be had for free, yet they have at least one reason to pay $2.49 for the song's "ring tone"?
So, yeah, the model is broken, so what's to happen? Generally, media companies have to figure out how to move from the product model to the "monetization of culture" model. You have lost revenues in one area, but new opportunities in others. Making money from a website! That didn't exist 20 years ago. What about licensing music to films, television & radio commercials, etc. That seems to be happening a lot. Sure, the film industry also has issues in this new digital world, but if they pay the music guys for licensing, it's their problem now.
One book to check out regarding this topic is Chris Anderson's Free: The Future of a Radical Price. He's the author of that book The Long Tail, which explains another huge shift in consumerism in the Internet age. I've read the latter, but not the former; though I'm sure I'll check it out before long.
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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