It's been a contradictory time for the music industry of late. On the one hand, several major labels including Universal have indicated they will do business with a free, ad-supported download service called Spiral Frog, a development many folks are hailing as not only a sea chang for the business as a whole but a serious threat to iTunes's dominance of the digital download marketplace.

Spiral Frog is also raising hackles from other sectors of the industry, with many artist managers and music publishers wondering exactly what sort of royalty rate free downloads will pay if the service's sole source of revenue is advertising. It's hard to imagine that each individual song download can pay out equivalent to the more standardized pay-for-delivery services.

Adding fuel to the already widespread feeling that the major labels are fundamentally misunderstanding the importance of the internet not just as a delivery system but as a space where audiences and artist can interact is the scandal swirling around Sgt Petsounds, a Dangermouse-style mashup record composed by noise musician Clayton Counts under the alias The Beachles.

In response to Counts' artistic tribute to two of the most canonical rock records of the 20th Century, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles and Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys- both of which made ample use of found sounds and collage ironically- master rights owners EMI Records have not only threatened to sue him into smithereens, but they are demanding the names and IP addresses of every internet user who intentionally or unintentenionally downloaded his work.

Certainly some sort of consensus must be reached regarding whether the pastiche and recontextualization of copywritten material in such mash ups constitutes fair use under the law, but EMI's heavy handed tactics have not only provoked a firestorm of criticism in the blogosphere, but serves as further evidence that it and it's corporate brethren remain fundamentally out of touch with what remains of the die-hard music loving community.

EMERGE will be following this story closely as it will undoubtedly have some dramatic ramifications, but for Clayton Counts and the music world as a whole. Here's hoping Counts can spn this into a lucrative production career like Dangermouse did before him. It's looking like he'll be needing the money to fend off EMI's lawyers.

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