It is unsurprising that record industry executives get apoplectic about the Internet. The truth is that though there are few sectors whose existence is threatened by the Net, the music industry (at least as we know it) is one.
First, the Net attacks the distribution network. Over the past hundred years, a vast real-world infrastructure has been built on the premise that in order to sell music to people, you need a physical product.
Now it's possible to download Westlife's or Britney's latest single from the Internet without going to a shop or handling anything as bulky and unsophisticated as a CD.
Then there's the ongoing row over the dissemination of music free over the Web, and the concern, as yet far from proven, that it's a profit killer.
But there is a yet more subtle way in which the Internet is shifting the sands on which the big record companies have set up their stalls. It involves changing how the market works.
As a channel of communication, the Internet is user-driven in a way that TV or radio can never be. On the Net, you can zip around the world in seconds, exchanging ideas with punks on the Chicago underground scene one minute, downloading garage from an eastern European site the next.
Even flicking through the 10 or so TV channels available here, the musical content is largely the same, and there is little material difference between, say, Top of the Pops on BBC and Smash Hits TV on Sky, unless you find the idiosyncrasies of the format central to the experience.
The Net has taken the market and shattered it into a thousand pieces, making it more difficult to sell the lowest common denominator music that is the lifeblood of the industry. How do you make a teenager involuntarily hum Ricky Martin's latest single when she eschews FM radio in favour of an ever-changing line-up of specialist music sites?
And the flipside of this phenomenon is that all kinds of innovative, avant-garde or just plain weird music is finding an audience without which it would perish in the chill winds of regional indifference.
There's the music of Jeff Harrington at www.parnasse.com/jeff.htm. By day, he's a Java programmer (Hey! Just like everyone in Ireland) and at night, he composes vast orchestral soundscapes on his computer.
One of his more striking compositions, Acid Bach, was generated using quarter tones (the notes between the black and white keys on a piano) and an expert system he wrote to create counterpoint to original melodies.
The results are startling and will not be to everybody's taste, but so far, he has generated CD sales of nearly $4,000 at www.mp3.com.
The Internet has become an inexhaustible resource for young bands. At the lowest level, you'll find advice, lots and lots of advice.
At www.getsigned.com a search engine will generate advice on any subject you care to mention, from press kits to copyright, to touring to vocal technique. Articles such as Easy Steps to a Successful Tour and The Eight Reasons Why You're Not Signed (the first two are an absence of skill and luck) tell you everything you ever wanted to know about the music business.
Getsigned was recently acquired by www.garageband.com, one of the most popular sites in this field. Founded by Talking Head Jerry Harrison, it operates a chart for unsigned bands.
YOU can upload your MP3, and then move up the chart by scoring good reviews from listeners. They in turn are encouraged to download the music and record their opinions, with the promise of a free CD for every 20 reviews.
There are individual charts for each genre (funk/soul/ R&B, rap/hiphop, alternative etc), and one overall chart. Every two months the site awards a $250,000 recording contract to the band which has stayed on top the longest. And even if you don't get a contract this way, those close to the top of the chart still attract the attention of record companies.
Philadelphia rock band Roi is currently in poll position. Lead singer Michael Roi says, "Since we have been at number one - we haven't won yet - we have had interest from labels such as Columbia, Warner Brothers, Flawless and Elektra, among others."
Rap rockers CID from Orange County, LA, are at number one in their genre and number five in the all-genre chart.
Neil Fox Parek from the band says: "We've been e-mailed from a major label asking for more material, and from college radios wanting to play it on their stations. So far, that's been it. But it's only been a week since we reached number one. I think the site is awesome."
www.vitaminic.com is similar to Garageband.com in that anyone can upload music onto the site - it's effectively a vanity publisher. However, it operates as a shop rather than a chart. You sign a non-exclusive contract and it offers your CDs for sale at a 50 per cent royalty. The rate is good compared with major label royalties, though no better than many indie ones, and of course, nobody pours money into promoting your music. The site currently features Dublin band Tenspeedracer on its alternative/punk page.
www.peoplesound.com offers a slightly more interesting business model. Like Vitaminic, there's a non-exclusive contract, a 50 per cent royalty and anyone can upload. What's different is that Peoplesound.com offers its listening public a search engine in which the punter is invited to enter the names of his or her favourite bands. The system then offers a list of new bands whose sound broadly resembles that of the cited favourite.
Visited by more than a million people a month, the site claims to be "Europe's number one new music download site". Up until a short time ago, that was like John Paul II claiming to be the number one Polish pope of this century, but as the number of sites mushrooms, it's an increasingly coveted title.
www.musicunsigned.com and www.musiceditor.com offer agency services to unsigned bands. If your work is adjudged good enough, Musicunsigned.com will post your MP3 onto its site and showcase your work to the industry. Musiceditor.com bills itself as an "independent A&R filter".
The site charges for its services, which include advice, demo-critiquing and, most importantly, forwarding demos it believes good enough to industry A&R people.
Like pretty much every other site in the genre, the LA-based www.taxi.com offers industry news, advice and a classified section. Its unique selling proposition is that it finds out what record companies are looking for and then communicates the information to the site's membership. It's kind of a lonely hearts column for the industry.
For example: "Established Independent Publisher fresh off a major hit record looking for Female Modern POP/AAA (Adult Album Alternative) songs a la Sheryl Crow meets Shawn Colvin. Songs must have excellent lyrical imagery and hit choruses. All tempos welcome." Or how about, "Major Christian Label looking for edgy, Contemporary Christian HipHop/Urban artists & bands"? Or even "Brand new network television comedy about a dorky college freshman looking for Alt/Pop songs from U2 to Dido."
All songs must be submitted through Taxi.com, and you have to stump up $5 for each song submitted, with an annual membership fee of $300.
Finally, if you have what it takes and lack only a name, go to the swarming midget archive at theorchidpool.com/swarmingmidget/where suggested names are broken down into three all-embracing categories: Edible, religious and scatological. What else is there?