It is rare that I read Rolling Stone, except in those odd years when I get a free subscription; but thanks to Boing Boing I checked the first in a two part series on ‘The Recording Industry’s Decline.’

It is safe to say that most Americans know someone who has illegally downloaded music (if they haven’t done so themselves), and surely the abundance of music pirates has played a part in the recording industry’s declining profits. That being said, this Rolling Stone piece makes an articulate, well reasoned, and well reported case for the role that the industry has played in its own misfortune.

The argument goes that the lumbering giant record industry chose legal action instead of a nimble business model when dealing with early iterations of peer to peer file sharing. By throwing their weight behind their outmoded thinking, the  industry was complicit in its own demise. Execs should have been lighter on the toes.

And to kick sand in the face of the industry while it panics and fitters, the article points out that music consumption is on the rise:

Despite the industry’s woes, people are listening to at least as much music as ever. Consumers have bought more than 100 million iPods since their November 2001 introduction, and the touring business is thriving, earning a record $437 million last year. And according to research organization NPD Group, listenership to recorded music — whether from CDs, downloads, video games, satellite radio, terrestrial radio, online streams or other sources — has increased since 2002. The problem the business faces is how to turn that interest into money. “How is it that the people that make the product of music are going bankrupt, while the use of the product is skyrocketing?” asks the Firm’s Kwatinetz. “The model is wrong.”