What he says, however, is food for thought – if you think about it, lol. What he means is that all this digital interaction is irrelevant to the creative process. And in that he might be right. Maybe.

By far the bigger issue is the majors’ position in all this. Like it or not, the mainstream is still saturated with major productions. TV, radio, press. They’re still guarding the money market with all they’ve got – and whoever is saying that they’re “wrong” in their methods is forgetting that they’re not wrong from THEIR point of view. If they were wrong, that market would no longer be theirs. And it still is.

If you want to HELP them get MORE of that market back – then suggestions of what they should do or shouldn’t might make more sense. If you want to bring them down – then either say nothing or feed them disinformation (assuming that they’re listening). ;)

It’s not clear from your post – or from the comments – which position you actually take.

The commenters are pretty much “anti” major, and the author of this post seems to be straddling the fence. All analysis here is thus somewhat tainted with this lack of clear gutsy position and perspective.

All that aside, I know my own position.

The majors would be just fine by me if they played fair. But they don’t. For this reason, even though (as the good Samaritan that I am) I’d like to help them, how could I? (assuming that I was able to do so) – that would be undermining the efforts of all genuine artists whose efforts they actively, brutally – and sometimes cunningly – destroy.

This said, here’s some food for thought for them: if the bloggers can find solutions, if certain upstarts hit it out of the part… so could they.

But… they won’t.

Why? Because they don’t perceive the threat clearly enough. Sure their profits have eroded – but they’re still making money and certainly have enough to eat. They’re worried about tomorrow, but they also know that tomorrow their houses will still be theirs and it will take quite a few tomorrows before they’re totally broke.

This false impression of “we still have time to think of something” is the reason why the majors will continue looking for solutions among yesterday’s ideas. And will continue being predatory, exclusive and closed.

For a genuine talent, one with imagination and conviction, this is the best time to be a rock musician in some thirty-plus years.

That's a laugh. There are working business models for online entertainment. There have been working business models for online entertainment for years now.

The problem is trying to copy what was done before into the online world. It doesn't work like that.

“Prince is completely right to ask for an advance from iTunes – it's simply an act of good faith on Apple's part to provide this.”

He has the right to ask, but he's also wrong.

Business models exist online, but they exist in a way that rewards the artists first and therefore… The music industry as we know it is on its way out. Let it die.

Movies are traded online like baseball cards and the last two years have been the biggest ever for box office.

Why? Lots of older talent, and a lot of new fresh talent have already made their way onto the internet and are making money. It's not like tech leaders haven't been doing this for years.

Let's look at this another way.

Perhaps it is time for talent to listen to all the free advice they've been given for more than a decade instead of still whining and screaming.

“continuing frustration with the lack of decent business models to replace the ones that have worked for so long and been so lucrative for the entertainment and media industry.”

Disruptive technology works this way. It always has. You either adopt, or you fail. Just because your business relies on a certain foundation doesn't mean that foundation is required to remain. If anything, if your business fails, it's because the foundation wasn't as sound as you thought it was.

But the best part about the quote is it's selective. Their has been, for more than a decade, proven, reliable business models in the entertainment industry. If various insiders don't like the working business models, or fail with their own ideas, how is it the tech leaders responsibility to make them more money?