What to do with 1,200 CDs I don't need

Elizabeth, this is Gillian Welch's response to your way of thinking:

Everything is free now,
That's what they say.
Everything I ever loved,
I'm going to give it away.
Someone hit the big score.
They figured it out,
That we're gonna do it anyway,
Even if doesn't pay.

I can get a tip jar,
Gas up the car,
And try to make a little change
Down at the bar.

Or I can get a straight job,
I've done it before.
I never minded working hard,
It's who I'm working for.

(Chorus)

Every day I wake up,
Come in a song.
But I don't need to run around,
I just stay home.

And sing a little love song,
My love, to myself.
If there's something that you want to hear,
You can sing it yourself.

'Cause everything is free now,
That what I say.
No one's got to listen to
The words in my head.
Someone hit the big score,
And I figured it out,
That we're gonna do it anyway,
Even if doesn't pay.

The RIAA may not be the consumer's friend, but ultimately the artist has to be paid. Otherwise, to paraphrase Gillian, we can sing to ourselves.

My own belief is that the issue of massive, free digital distribution and copying is unsolvable according to the traditional models. I think artists will have to move to an "honor system" of online donations -- tips, really, like busking all over again -- for the music of theirs that people enjoy after taking it for free off the net. This implies that artists should just go ahead and provide said music for free (or nominally low cost) over the net, with the full expectation that it will propagate in the way that is now widely considered to be a problem (and illegal). The first "difficulty" with this is that it would largely cut out the labels (cry me a river). I don't know what artists actually get paid these days per album sold -- a couple of bucks? Simply go online and give an artist whose songs you've downloaded an album's worth of $2 directly. When the legacy need for physical media and packaging finally fades away (except for a niche enthusiast market), overhead will be much lower -- basically just creating and maintaining a website, while ever more of today's popular music seems to be made in low cost "project studios" anyway. Let videos die -- MTV doesn't show them anymore, and they were never good for the music, just an expense which gave the labels more control. A new model of "record labels" will probably thrive in this environment, ones which operate primarily through their websites and function much more like the numerous independents of yore than the humongous conglomerates of today, being portals catering to defined tastes and genres. There may be considerably less concentrated money in this model, but it will be less dysfunctional from both the artistic and business standpoints. The "major labels" can revert to just doing a similar business with their back catalogs and quit trying to shove their present day mass-produced crap down our collective throats, they'll be much less top-heavy for the change. Government action may help facilitate the transition, by breaking up monopolies both among the major labels and also in radio station ownership, but if that never happens, tech and market forces (read: the internet, wireless and satellite, and the existence of better options content-wise) will eventually accomplish it for us.