I know that there are a lot of current articles out about the different music services. This one is not about any of them in particular, but rather about the concept in general.

Now, we all know about the beginnings of this with the original Napster. People say that it was evil, and I agree, but it did start a trend in technology. They record companies perked up and realized that there was money to be made with online music. They realized that people would buy single songs and probably buy them on compulsion.

I think that the technology is still evolving, and it will be time before all the services have all the artists that I want, but they are making good headway. I can only see that this will benefit both the consumer and the recording industry. As a consumer, I was always frustrated with buying a CD. There are very few CDs that I will listen to from start to finish. However, with the new services, that is not an issue. I can buy only the songs I want. But, you may wonder why this would be better for the recording industry. Well, it's simple- I am buying music that I wouldn't have otherwise. I typically don't buy music. I end up listening to the radio. However, now that I can buy a song at a time, I will go out and find artists that I have never heard of and buy a song from them. I have songs now from artists that I would have never bought a CD from, and if I like them, then I will go look for more stuff from them. This type of activity is a win-win situation.

Online music gets a 4 coffee cup rating (they need more artists involved)