As a person who works in the music industry (for a large a quite profitable record label), I have an "insiders" view of the argument. After reading the article about whether or not the period of "profitable music" has come to an end, I really admit that it looks like the article was written by someone that does not have a good understanding of the music industry -- both from the perspectives of the musicians and the labels. The sale of recorded music will continue to be profitable for several reasons.

First, there is too much time and money invested in recorded music (and other types of media) for the creators and marketers not to seek a return on their investment. All of the users of Napster, Gnutella, and similar programs use it because they like the music. Its a sad reality, but if you take away the profit motive from record music -- you don't have any more recorded music to download. Its that simple.

Second, I keep seeing the statement made that recorded music will no longer make money, so artists will make their income from touring, merchandising, and sponsors. Ok. Anyone who has ever spent time playing in a band (or knows anyone who has), knows that this is a farce. Given the costs involved in a tour (both big and small), the profit margins are extremely slim. Most bands make money from selling records, not from touring. Same goes for merchandise. The costs involved in making the amount of merchandise needed for a band to make a living off of it is staggering. If the musicians were to follow this business model, then you would have multinational corporations paying them to merchandise their t-shirts and hands. This would be horrible for two reasons. First, there simply isn't as big of a market for band merchandise as their is for recorded music (so, no profit = no interest from multinational corporations = no merchandise). Second, even if there was enough money to be made here... you'd still end up with a handful of uber-famous bands, who are backed by large corporations, whereas the "indie" bands would still be poor and unable to sell anything.

Third, believe it or not -- there are people out there that think stealing music is wrong, don't have an Internet connection (or if they do, its too slow), or just rather have a physical representation of the music (I'm a record collector. I LIKE holding a CD/LP, looking at the artwork, etc.). As long as there are people like this, music will be profitable.

... ok, there are many other reasons why music will continue to be profitable for a very long time. However, since this is already becoming a very long message I'll cut it short here. My point? Well, I agree that record sales will be hurt in the long run by trading of songs -- just like software sales have been hurt by software pirates. However, just like the software industry (where money is still made by the billions), the record industry is far from crumbling. The RIAA will just have to get used to the idea off "acceptable losses," and continue to work at preventing it (oh, and expect them only to get meaner from here on in).