You have to be suspicious of the music recording industry. This handful of large entertainment conglomerates, and other various recording artists, who have been particularly active in the defense of their own distribution rights. They have been complaining a lot. They say they are being pirated out of their well-deserved billions. Worse, they say it is everyone else’s fault.

While most industries have found a way to profit from Internet technology, the recording industry (a term I use loosely, and with some regret) has not been able to wrap its greedy head around a successful strategy. Instead, they have let their characteristic opportunism get in the way of true innovation.

Ten years ago, the formula for success in the music business was straightforward. Promotion and lifestyle niche marketing led to celebrity and successful branding. At this point in music history, every music form had its own brand and its own celebrity. Major recording musicians and their labels had a license to print money, and they were so busy at it, that they failed to notice that the currency was changing.

Their core consumers were growing disinterested. It’s not as though Tweens and college students all of a sudden decided they wanted to steal their music. They just decided it wasn’t worth anything. The promotional tactics of the Nineties were fast becoming irrelevant. The albums and singles on offer no longer captivated the attention span, or allegiance, of music’s key consumers, and they certainly didn’t need the products that the music industry was offering. Hillary Duff purses were not a substitute for the bold changes occurring in other mediums.

For the rest of the public, the promotional veneer had already worn thin. Adult consumers were growing interested in purchase affordability and flexibility. The music industry was offering over-inflated boxed sets and pricey concert DVDs. Where was the daring solution to capture our attention? There was no effort on the part of the recording industry to stay ahead of the curve, in terms of manufacturing a relevant product. They were far from proactive in telling consumers how the Internet was going to change the way they interacted with their industry.

Instead, the recording industry has worked hard to describe file sharing as piracy – fleeting customer loyalties as naivety. They are trying to guilt customers back into buying music. As a result, the pact between musicians and the public has never seemed less glamorous.

The public is being spun into believing that albums are not like every other commodity. In the post Back Street Boys era, consumers are now supposed to now understand music is an art form. It is built from the blood, sweat and tears of the musician. It is intellectual property and we must compensate someone for his or her talent. This assertion rides on questionable integrity.

Read today, that music industry giant Garth Brooks has signed an exclusive distribution deal with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Following the lead of other industry mavericks like the Rolling Stones and Elton John (with Best Buy Inc), or Alanis Morrisette (with Starbucks), Garth is going to make some of his products harder to get. What’s more, he is doing it in style. Imagine the cachet that will be added to his artistic credibility. (Wal-Mart: a company that reeks of authenticity and culture.)

I’m sure that this latest wave of corporate synergy between the recording industry and big-box retailers will do nothing to reduce the commercial crassness that makes most people feel so cynical about buying music in the first place.

To boot, it’s not daring, and it’s not what consumers want. I feel no pity for an industry without industry. And I’m going home to download the next big star.

Drop your lottery tickets.

Cancel your pay-per-click Google account.

Find the male of the chrysokalla and:

a man who has been kneaded together. The gold of the Ethiopian earth produces it from its drops. A certain species of ant brings the gold to the surface of the earth and enjoys it. Put him together with his wife of vapour, till the divine bitter water comes out. When it has thickened, or colored red with the juice of the golden vine of Egypt, then smear it over the leaflets of the light-bringing goddess and also of the red copper or of the red Venus and then thicken it until it coagulates into gold.

This simple recipe for creating gold is brought to you by Olympiodoros, Byzantine alchemist.

Alchemy. The lost art based on impossible-to-follow instructions with a promised reward appealing enough to entice many: turn lead into gold. Become rich. Resurrected in the modern era by the Internet marketer: fill out surveys. Become rich.

Buy my e-book. Become rich. Purchase my audio tapes. Become rich.

Sell bath products to your neighbours. Purchase your bath products from your other neighbour. Become rich. Also, win friends and influence people.

A Chymicall treatise of the Ancient and highly illuminated Philosopher, Devine and Physitian, Arnoldus de Nova Villa who lived 400 years agoe, never seene in print before, but now by a Lover of the Spagyrick art made publick for the use of Learners, printed in the year 1611.

has become

Discover The Amazing Winning Secret To Selling On The Internet! Many will try and most will fail. Why? Because to sell on the Internet you must have the one ingredient that most Internet Marketers are missing…A HUGE AUDIENCE!

A HUGE AUDIENCE. Today’s philosopher’s stone?