Brian:

My cousin - no need to mention him by name - is a Senior VP at Tower Records. He doesn't see a bright future for Tower so he is now planning an early retirement.

Though P2P file sharing is an issue he deals with every day, that is not what is knocking the Tower down. Rather, it is an industry that thinks little CD boxes with microscopic pictures will be "collected" by fans like the nice big albums used to be. It hasn't happened and never will.

Then there is the issue that Bob mentioned regarding the desire by the consumer to have only the prime cuts, not the scraps. In the old "album" days, we really had no choice. It was buy the album or forget about it. Now with the internet and P2P there is a way, though dishonest, to solve the problem.

Has the industry gotten the message that CD's with multiple "losers" on them may be a thing of the past? Have they considered making CD's available with only the songs on them that will be promoted to "hit status," thus sparing the consumer the effort of having to weed out the crap? The answer is no to both scenarios.

Rather than making it harder for kids to be dishonest, maybe the industry should consider ways to make it easier for kids to be honest.

P.E. Knudsen

[This message has been edited by Knute (edited 09-25-2003).]

P.E. Knudsen