It appears as though the music industry has found a new strategy to cash in on royalties. As music lovers are well aware, at first these companies tried to sue individual users for illegally downloading music. But it is painfully clear that this approach to recover from major financial loss has destroyed their image in the public eye.

It appears as though the music industry has found a new strategy to cash in on royalties. As music lovers are well aware, at first these companies tried to sue individual users for illegally downloading music. But it is painfully clear that this approach to recover from major financial loss has destroyed their image in the public eye.

Instead of lowering the cost of CDs in order to compete with music circulating through the internet that is for free, these businesses have turned to collection agencies who are now bringing cellphone companies to court over royalties from ring tones. Contesting that ring tones counted as public performances, the music industry asserted that cell phone companies should be obligated to pay performance fees. The courts quickly denied this claim.

Despite this unfruitful endeavour to collect on royalties, Broadcast Music Inc is now suing T-Mobile over ring back tones, alleging that the mobile carrier is selling them without licensing agreements. Unlike ring tones, which play publically when someone calls, ring back tones are only heard specifically by the person calling. Instead of hearing a cellphone dialing, the caller will hear a song that was chosen by the cell owner.

Critics are quick to point out the apparent irony of this lawsuit. If ringtones, which can be heard by anyone around a cellphone, do not constitute public performance, it seems ludicrous to sue the mobile carriers over a ringback tone that can be heard only by the caller. With record companies suffering from huge financial losses, it seems as though they are grasping at straws in order to collect any money that they possibly can.

It does not seem that the idea of lowering the cost of CDs and DVDs has occurred to the record companies. There are still a large number of music lovers out there who would rather collect and own the media, but with prices constantly rising, downloading music for free seems more and more tempting. CDs are generally priced at seventeen dollars.

A few bands have bypassed the issue of free music downloads through creative tactics. Radiohead, an alternative rock band, built a website where fans can obtain the mp3s for free, or for a donation. Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor made a similar site. The music industry's unsuccessful lawsuits and declining public image leads one to believe that thinking outside of the box and lower pricing may be more effective than bullying money out of mobile carriers and individual users.