But the wider significance of digital distribution is that the actual CD-ROM will be unnecessary. But on college campuses and other places where computers hook up to the Internet through fast T-1 connections, music via MP3 is a fact of life. The rest of us will have to wait until we get cable modems, which speed up Internet connections. The recording-industry association obtained a temporary restraining order on the MP3 player, charging that it was a bootlegging machine, but the manufacturers prevailed in a higher court by arguing that it's only a playback device, not a recorder. Sooner or later, the hardware won't matter.
Digital distribution is likely to revolutionize the economics of the music business.
Some advantages of large recording companies, like their centralized manufacturing and distribution and their domination of retail display space, vanish if the Internet becomes the main outlet for music. With current mail-order Internet stores like CDnow, an album on Kill Rock Stars Records can already have the same visibility as one on Columbia or Atlantic. Of course, without the cost of manufacturing a recording and getting it to a store, music could also be made available at lower prices. But that would cut profits. Their worries may be slightly exaggerated.