Here's an article TechCrunch is running today:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/01/10/the-music-industrys-last-stand-will-be-a-music-tax/

What are your thoughts?

Interesting stuff.
I'm not sure how I feel about any of this anymore, but I do know that I'm glad I don't rely on music for my income, and I can't see myself ever committing any music of mine to a CD release again.
What a sad state.

The downside to a music tax is the nebulous coffers into which the money goes. I don't believe artists/musicians will really benefit from it.

My belief is that music is heading back to a wide open frontier if artists/bands/musicians are willing to work it. Live music is not dead and will come back as an alternative to the other forms of entertainment.

If/when musicians build a following, their audience will buy the music. The upside is, the band potentially sees more money than they would otherwise working for a corporation i.e. record company.

Granted, the internet isn't going anywhere either. Folks will continue to download and share music. My thought is that if a band is good, they will get paid regardless. No music tax.

a music tax would be idiotic.

As the article says, the big companies would get the money no matter WHAT kind of crap they produce -- they'd simply be competing with each other for their share. The share would not increase or decrease with overall quality.

This would be the worst thing for music since MTV.

GAK!

Here's my prediction:

The future of recorded music will subscriber and/or advertiser based.

At some point everyone will be able to access virtually all music ever recorded online via streaming and they won't want to waste hard drive space and the time to download and back up their music collections. At that point, piracy will become negligible. Instead, we'll pay a flat fee per month to the company of our choice that provides the streams and listen to any song we want. The server software in turn will keep track of customer hits per song and pay the designated royalties to the company or individual who they licensed the song from.

In the meantime, the tax won't get passed; or if it does, it'll have to be in a limited form -- pared down to a pennies per month tax that most people won't even notice.

Best,

Geoff

Some great responses and Geoff, I think you may have hit the nail on the head

Tax on my musics ? Can I say I'm not surprised.