At a lot of functions, the future of the record business always comes up in conversation. According to many, the CD as we know it doesn’t have a bright future. It may have the same fate as the cassette. The reality in the industry is that technology is really the future. Reported on FOX News this past week was the reality of recorded albums being sold on memory cards. The small memory card is what you plug into your computer. The memory card will be loaded with music in the MP3 format, free of copy protections.

Perhaps, not entirely, but SunDisk Corp., four major labels and retailers Best buy and Wal-Mart are hoping that albums sold on micro SD memory cards will at least provide an extra stream of revenue. Given this, the record labels – Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music, Warner Music Group and EMI Group PLC – are hoping slotMusic can be another physical revenue source and one that is more versatile than CDs given the kinds of gadgets people carry around these days.

In our opinion, all this is fine. Our only problem is the free copying part.  Imagine buying a memory card, loading it into your computer and forwarding it on to twenty friends or classmates. Here again, the artist and writer/publisher royalties are being stolen and abused if the situation is non-protective.