Sponsored Content WEBINAR: ELECTION 2008: E-mail Tips from a Political Insider   WEBINAR: Becoming the Illusionist: The Magic of Using "Brand" to Drive Response without Results Disappearing in the Process   WEBINAR: Score and Win Through Cooperation   TOOLS OF THE TRADE: Holiday's are prime-time for email marketing - maximize your ROI by getting to the inbox   ON DEMAND WEBINAR--MASTER CLASS: High Performance Online and Off-line Strategies for Large Scale Customer Acquisition   FREE WHITE PAPER - Direct Mail and the Internet Find any supplier you need - agencies, CRM, fulfillment, lists, e-commerce, paper, printers, telemarketing, and more. Featured Categories Lists and Data Telemarketing Database Marketing E-commerce Web Marketing Agency & Creative Services Print, Production & Paper Lists and Data Processing :: view all categories Get free access to more than 50,000 list data cards - one of the most comprehensive databases in the industry. >> Search Now DIRECT Buzz Blog Webinars Buyer's Guide Calculators JobZone ListFinder Promo Calendar Research Store E-Newsletters Print Magazine This Month in Direct Magazine Deal With It Direct had a full house for this year's list roundtable. Considering all the additional responsibilities on brokers' plates, that's impressive... See Full July Issue

Rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy fame delivered a talk about the new wave of music marketing that sounded eerily like lots of recent speeches on direct marketing in the age of the Web. “Traditional music looked at the public only as consumers,” he declared in the keynote for CMJ's Music Marathon last month in New York. On the Internet “you have to look at the public as a participant, a would-be partner, and give them the opportunity to consume.”

Chuck D, an outspoken advocate of Napster, MP3 and future forms of file-swapping, believes music-swapping technology will have the same effect on music that radio did: It will encourage sales. And while that music is shared and downloaded from the Net, those sales also will be made on the Web. Online music businesses give potential customers the chance to check out a group, sample its music — and then buy.

The technology might also bring about the death of the traditional music business, which the rapper referred to in one of his kinder barbs as “a disorganized hustle.”

Record executives of the Big Six record companies used to make “300% on the dollar,” Chuck D said in his lively, expletive-laced talk that kept the mostly twentysomething crowd laughing and engaged. “Now, the chickens have come home to shoot,” he quipped. “Trying to stop [file sharing] is like trying to stop the rain. Napster leads the pack, but there are 10,000 Int-ies [independent Internet record companies] to come.”

This means loss of profits for the traditional companies and better opportunities for artists to make money, said the rapper who founded www.rapstation.com, which supports young musicians. “There's nothing wrong with corporate-izing, as long as there are many corporations,” he remarked. “Monopolizing is terrible.”

“Sure, there'll be more than 1 million artists out there with 1 million labels,” he admitted. But the best of the lot will be heard and make money. “Cream rises to the top.”

Chuck D's advice to those who want to rise to the top is sound for any dot-com. “Don't try to be everything to everybody,” he warned. “If it costs you a lot of money to make your product, you better scale it down.”

His prediction for the traditional studios? “It's over, baby. MP3 has a damn near unbeatable format.”