What it doesn't have, despite its name, is a history of selling downloadable music over the Internet. The company's Web site is still a clearinghouse for all things MP3, but right now it sells music burned onto singly produced compact discs.
Performers choose the songs they want on their CD, the sequencing and the retail price.
The music industry is not going to move forward in any aggressive way until they see red ink. The big hole is that the Net allows distribution of an awful lot of bad music. Robertson says filtering could be done scientifically on the Web. GoodNoise, another online distributor, says this will remain the role of record labels. Then subscribe to the IAW E-Mail Alert.