The key word is HOPE.  I saw this article on hiphopdx and had to throw in my 2(more like 12) cents.  I posted a little while back about artists and labels offering albums for the cheap like $2.99 or $1.99 and I wanted to address Apple and the record label’s “solution” to the slump in record sales.  Apparently, Apple has teamed up with some major labels to provide new incentives for consumers to encourage purchasing music digitally.  They are now going to offer lyric sheets, linear notes and photographs along with the music for purchase.  They are also going to make it so the music can be played directly from the “interactive book” without clicking back to Itunes software.  Sounds pretty awesome doesn’t it?  I know it makes me want to spend my money on an album that I can get for free 2 weeks before the release date.  I think it’s funny that as labels and Apple scrambles to combat declining record sales, Itunes decides to raise the prices of a lot of songs to $1.29 a piece.  As smart and as rich as these people at these labels and companies are, they just simply cannot grasp the concept of the digital music age.  I think all of these ideas are not bad but they are YEARS too late.  The record industry is simply REacting to a problem and not changing ahead of the times.  If Apple came out with Itunes right when Napster hit the scene and lowered album prices back then, I GUARANTEE they would have been more suited to deal with the issue now.  There is one point that people are simply overlooking.  People are NOT paying for music any more.  The fact that some artist sell a million albums in a week is incredible but if those sales were translated to back when records were selling, artists would be selling MILLIONS and MILLIONS of records.  I know for a fact that if labels would have dropped CD prices back in 2000 to 5 bucks or 3 bucks a CD, record sales would have been through the roof.  Now, they FINALLY realize that even selling one million records is a huge deal.  I bet money that if labels could track all of the illegal downloading, artists would triple and quadruple their numbers.  Imagine if labels just released the music for free and tracked all of the downloads.  The numbers would be astounding.  Simple selling linear notes and pictures and lyric sheets are not going to boost sales because all that shit will just be available for free as well.  I’m not saying that I agree with music being free because SOME artists do put years of blood, sweat and tears into albums and to simply give it away free is a slap in the face.  HOWEVER, it is the reality.  I think Radiohead offered the coolest and most innovative solution by giving their album away for whatever price people wanted to pay.  If someone wanted it free then they would have it but if a die hard fan wanted to drop 15 bucks then cool.  I know the lack of record sales creates lots of issues for labels and artists like no budgets for albums, no advances and limited promotion but it also brings music back to the fundamentals.  It’s just music.  There is a reason that people still listen to Slick Rick, The Pharcyde, Blackstar, The Chronic, etc.  Regardless of the amount of money put into the music, regardless of the advance the artists got and regardless of how many records they all sold, they have one thing in common: Their music(for the most part) is classic and timeless.  No one will be cranking the Soulja Boy 15 years from now but people will be listening to The Chronic and know the words to Lodi Dodi.  It will be interesting to see the label’s and Apple’s next step when they realize that linear notes and lyric sheets do not boost record sales.  I think it is an absolute joke that Itunes upped their prices as well.  It seems like these people have NO idea what is going on, on the internet.  I think artists don’t or shouldn’t expect large paychecks from album sales any more.  They should be more focused on maximizing the amount of people that hear the music and then hit the road and sell shit that you can’t bootleg.  Shit, give all the fans hugs before and after the shows, spark a blunt of with fans or invite some stans on a couple dates of the tour because that shit is priceless.  Damn, no one pass those ideas to labels or Apple because then record sales might actually go up.  Alright so enough rambling from me.  What are your guys thoughts?  Are their any solutions to the decline in record sales?  What “incentives” can labels offer fans to actually purchase the music?  One last shout out to Little Brother for leaking their last project by themselves.  Shout out to Radiohead for offering a cool solution as well.  Peep the article on hiphopdx as well as the original on Financial Times.