Instead of clinging to late-20th-century distribution technologies, like the digital disk and the down- loaded file, the music business should move into the 21st century with a revamped business model using innovative technology, several industry's experts say. They want the music industry to do unto the file-swapping services what the services did unto the music companies—eclipse them with better technology and superior customer convenience.
Their vision might be called "everywhere Internet audio". Music fans instead of downloading files on KaZaA—whether they were using computers, home stereos, radios or handheld devices--would have access to all music the record companies hold in their vaults. Listeners could request that any song be immediately streamed to them via the Internet.
If consumers could do this, the argument goes, they would have no interest in amassing thousands of songs on their hard drives. There would be no "theft" of music, because no one would bother to take possession of the song. To clinch music fans' loyalty to the new system, and make them willing to pay for it, the music companies and the supporting industry would need to provide attractively priced, easy-to-use services to give consumers full access to the hundreds of thousands of songs available to them. Consumers could still ask for song titles or artists, as they do now on KaZaA. But they could also, for example request rock 'n' roll tunes like Hat that appeared for more than three weeks in Billboard's Top 10 during the 1960' s. Or they could ask for early 1990's guitarists that sound like Eric Clapton, or new mists similar in style. to Alanis Morissette.
Requests could be intricate, like asking for music subsequently recorded by the original members of the Lovin's Spoonful. Or they could be simple, like requesting light jazz for dinner-party background music. The system would be interactive and could learn each user's tastes. As listeners voted thumbs up or down to tunes (should they choose to), the service would amend their personal libraries accordingly.
If it worked, it would be as if we each had our own private satellite radio channels—customizable collection of tunes for hundreds of millions of audiences of one. It is a compelling business model, and the current music companies, as the owners of the content, could be at the fore of the system.
A tiny taste of such an approach is available on Internet radio networks like live365.com. On such services, listeners can essentially customize a radio station to their individual tastes. But crucial to the future of everywhere Internet audio, many believe, lies in widespread wireless Internet access, because wireless means portability. "Wireless gives the record companies a chance to do it all over again, and this time get it right," said Jim Griffin, the former head of technology at Geffen Records and now the chief executive of the music publisher Cherry Lane Digital. Mr. Griffin is also a founder of pholist.org, home of an active online discussion of music' s future on the Internet.
Many of the brightest industry insiders, academies, lawyers, musicians, industry critics, broadcasters and venture capitalists assemble at pholist.org daily to debate the music business beyond downloading. Many say wireless holds the key. Myriad portable devices already offer Internet access. Some, like the BlackBerry, maintain an always-on wireless Internet connection. Some business-oriented devices, like the Palm Tungsten, no

A. continue free swapping of files on the Internet
B. continue to use late-20th-century distribution technologies
C. use more advanced technology and provide convenience to customers
D. bring lawsuits against consumers for the music files they download from the Internet