First of all MP3.com is an Internet site that has downloadable MP3's or in other words digital music. MP3's are free for people to download and listen to instead of buying the artists' CD's. MP3.com is the most widely used site for downloading more than 180,000 songs from over 31,000 artists. As a promotion to get artists to post their music on the Website, MP3.com is offering the artists a portion of $200,000. Since Nov. 2, the artists who have songs available at MP3.com have been accumulating a portion of this money based on the popularity of their music. MP3.com invites all artists to post their music on their web page. Michael Robertson, chairperson of the website, stated that MP3.com is better because the artist gains a cash benefit for his or her musical performances.
             The artists posting their songs on the Internet are taking a risk that consumers will preview the music in MP3 format and then want to go out and buy the CD. In order to protect the artists' rights, a group of 117 big companies such as Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Liquid Audio, Microsoft Corp., and RealNetworks have formed the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI). The goal of this group is to discover a way to control the distribution of MP3's while making a profit to pay to copyright holders. The entire SDMI initiative is expected to be completed in the first half of 2000.
             Brian Crissie, a sophomore at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has 8 recordable CDs with 80 songs from the Dave Matthews Band on each. Although this is illegal and punishable, everyone is doing it. Many teenagers are downloading MP3's and putting them on CDs because it is the wave of the future.
             By 2002, teenagers are expected to push Web music sales beyond $1.6 billion. Jupiter Communications Inc. found that 72% of 13 to 18-year-old Internet users had visited music sites in the past year. A...