The RIAA is a monstrously huge behemoth with billions of dollars at its back...

The only power held by the RIAA is what's granted it by the record companies, and, in turn, the artists represented by the record companies. Their purpose is to protect the interests of the record companies' profits. But if an artist goes indie, breaks his ties with the record company, and decides to sell his music in MP3 format, there's nothing that the RIAA can say about it because the artist isn't doing anything illegal or even immoral. There's also nothing that the RIAA can do to stop the MP3 format itself. That cat's already out of the bag.

You're right in that the CD format will continue to be around for a long, long time. CD players will not become obsolete for quite a while. I just happen to be in a position where I can treat CDs as a temporary delivery medium, and use MP3 as my primary music source.

Tony Fabris
Empeg #144