WSJ Online today makes available the headline WSJ story "Sales of Music, Long in Decline, Plunge Sharply."

For example:

One week, "American Idol" runner-up Chris Daughtry's rock band sold just 65,000 copies of its chart-topping album; another week, the "Dreamgirls" movie soundtrack sold a mere 60,000. As recently as 2005, there were many weeks when such tallies wouldn't have been enough to crack the top 30 sellers. In prior years, it wasn't uncommon for a No. 1 record to sell 500,000 or 600,000 copies a week.

Since music is as popular as ever, it seems logical to conclude that the biggest change is the rise of free-riding:

Meanwhile, one billion songs a month are traded on illegal file-sharing networks, according to BigChampagne LLC

The key point is that this is not the music companies' crisis -- this is a crisis for everyone. If there is no compensation for artists from creating work, or compensation for others who find and filter the art, and rcord, package, and distribute it, then the music will not be produced.

YOU, personally, will return to an 18th century state in which your total musical experience will consist of hearing your cousin Betsy play a reed flute, except of course for the music graciously sponsored by the modern equivalent of 18th century aristocrats who want to sell advertising to your eyeballs.

Unfortunately, you will take me with you. So bring on the DRM, and the secondary legal liabilty, and the bots roaming the Internet looking for copyright infringement, because I don't like the reed flute.