This week the international trade organization for the recording industry, the IFPI, released their annual digital music report summarizing the previous year and making some comments about the next few months. It's basically 50% PR material, an industry "message " of sorts, and part cheerleading material for music executives to pat themselves on the back for.

 As someone who is paid partly to keep tabs on what's going on with record labels, I'm fairly opinionated on the subject. I've gone on the record at my day job saying that the problem with labels is they think finding them a new way to make money is everybody's problem but their own. But just as it's cheap for the labels to spend so much time criticizing the companies and individuals who have been willing to gamble their own money to find a new revenue model for recordings, it's not fair for me to criticize them without suggesting an alternate course.

 If you look around there are many to consider, from label involvement with tour promotion to a label sponsored subscription service. The first thing they all have in common is that they're more than what the industry has shown itself willing to do. Whether it's an online store like iTunes , a free service like SpiralFrog or Pandora , or individual artists like Radiohead or Saul Williams giving away music, they've been doing what should have been done 5 years ago or more by the labels. They're trying to figure out a new approach to making money on their music.

 The problem all the major labels have is that they feel they're somehow entitled to continue making money. A capitalist society requires constant change though. Occasionally that means change at the top, and sometimes that means somebody, or a lot of somebodies, go from the top to the bottom. If the labels can't find a way to generate enough money to survive it's time for them to go the way of all companies without a viable product.

In other words, it's the music industry's responsibility to find their own revenue streams. Find ways to generate ad revenue. Give people the option to get free low quality (MP3 or AAC) songs or pay a little for higher quality. Offer digital recordings of each performance with the purchase of tickets. Find something you have that can't be distributed for free because your music can.

 And labels aren't alone here. Some people have complained that such a model hurts musicians and that it will be impossible, or nearly impossible, for an artist to become the next Rolling Stones with free music. I say so what? I don't begrudge the Rolling Stones their success or wealth, but I don't owe it to them either. If Keith Richards lost all his money and came by my house going door to door collecting for the Make Keith Richards A Multimillionaire Again fund I wouldn't contribute. But I will pay (or donate or however you want to word it) to support artists I like. I prefer to do that by paying to see them live, but I'm wiling to fork out a little cash for high quality downloads.

I got an iPod for Christmas and was immediately struck by 2 things - the quality of the iPod and the complete lack of high quality downloads of the songs I wanted in the format I wanted. Provide a product worth paying for, such as cheap, high quality downloads and I'm ready to pay. Otherwise get out of the way because somebody else will - and they'll probably be buying your company in the not too distant future.