Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have decided to go solo and generate monies directly from their fans, taking their label out of the equation. Does their record label have the right to be compensated for any significant future financial revenues generated by their artist, resulting from the label's past contributions in the artist's development? Does their record label have any rights to share the wealth or do they need to adopt a more entrepreneurial approach to conducting business given the current demise of the record industry?

Both Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails would not be in the position they are now without the help of the major labels that signed them. Their labels invested millions of dollars for over a decade to help make them a household name and marketed them to create brand identity and recognition. Is it hypocritical to use their clout with fans and go solo, leaving nothing to their major label? Some may claim this move is a stab in the back of the majors as well as ironic since traditionally, it is the major label that has the upper hand in financial gains.

Is the Radiohead / NIN experiment beneficial to musicians and indie artists as a whole? The fact is that no indie band can do what Radiohead / NIN because they never had the financial backing of a major label or were ever exposed to a mass audience as these bands have. Can musicians match the level of a Radiohead or NIN or has the bar raised too high and hence is detrimental to the whole industry?

The donation-based approach would have never been adopted if there was an absence of piracy. Users hid behind technology and downloaded, pirated music because they could do it. Just like Eliot Spitzer and Bill Clinton. Users do it because they can and they think they can get away with it. Radiohead and NIN took advantage of this fact and decided to not only capture the loyal fan base that would pay, but also play on the guilt trip of illegal downloader giving them an option to pay what they wish for their music.

What is the issue with piracy? It has lowered music revenues in album sales. It has turned off music investors. Less money generated translates to less money available for artist development. We will probably never see another mega-band again and we will be governed by middle-sized bands instead. One fact is true though. Radiohead and Trent Reznor have changed the way the record industry thinks. While record label executives are fighting piracy, suing potential consumers and still contemplating removing DRM restrictive technologies, Reznor and Yorke are busy trying to figure out how to make a profit. They are the real entrepreneurs.

Until record executives become entrepreneurial again, the music industry will suffer. Old ideas need to be replenished with new ones as well as accompanied by innovative ways fo conducting business and communicating with your target audience. The environment has changed and technology has enabled real-time global distribution in a digital format at a minimal cost. The internet is in more households than ever before and mobile is growing at a phenomenal rate. That is a good start. Why can't the record executives take this information and use it to revive the record industry? They need to either retire or  take an entrepreneurial approach to the way they conduct business. That means abandoning the failed approaches of suing consumers and using restrictive technology which complicate compatibility and transferability between devices.