I just did a research project on this very topic for school, and lots of statements from the people involved indicated that:
1. Pay for downloading service would work best, they just haven't perfected it yet. They're not in any hurry to do anything new with it either. Make Kazaa a $10 a month service and this whole damn problem would be solved tomorrow, but human stupidity is what's running the scene instead of simple common sense.
2. Lost revenue figures b/c of downloaded music are 100% bulls**t. There is no way to prove that any of the additional music obtained by P2P would have been sold at all, or certainly not for the price asked. Music sales are a finicky thing, dependent on consumer preference, relative price, and what's being put out at the moment. So much of what's being put out right now, especially what's being pushed as big ticket items which the record companies invest heavily in promoting just simply SUCKS ROYAL DING DONG. They lose money when they push people to buy something and they refuse to fork it out in the volume they want. Why not be smarter and maybe tell the wanna be's and one hit wonders to take a hike and push a broom instead of a microphone like they should in the first place instead of making it the consumers' fault?
3. Anti competition litigation, which is what the record companies are doing, is just simply standard practice these days in corporate America. What to do when you need more money and don't like how the market is doing for/to you? Pick out the ripest target and sue someone! *coughGarnerscough* It's vastly unethical, but when you're throwing around multi million dollar figures daily, you think anyone cares about ethics anymore? Not your standard spit and polished, by the book top office mega nerds. If they have to haul out the legal hitman to make their buck go up...hell, if they even get the itch to do it on a whim, maybe even for their own morbid entertainment, you bet they've got the little briefcase toting scumbags on one touch speeddial in 10 seconds flat.
In short, they're not very good at understanding the market climate they're in and very incognizant of the short, simple solutions. Egos and resistance to change are the inhibiting factors of progress. They're not good at surviving in a mess they've largely made for themselves. Instead of wanting to run faster, they just want everyone else's legs cut off.
