Hillary Rosen at the P2P Conference

The Recording Industry’s (RIAA) Hillary Rosen spoke at O’Reilly’s P2P Conference in Washington. One interesting comment she made was that “This is an industry of advances, not royalties.” Perhaps that’s part of the problem… I certainly agree that artists need some money up front in order to be able to record, but giving out large advances is part of what makes albums so expensive. (Did they really spend $30 million on Michael Jackson’s new album? Is MJ’s contract with Sony really worth $1 billion? How much of Whitney Houston’s $100 million does she see up front?) I think royalties make a lot of sense and provide incentives for an artist to be creative in promoting their work.

Real change in the music industry is going to require pressure from artists and consumers alike. The Net and modern music devices are disruptive enough technologies that the models can change completely if the right push happens.