A week after English band Radiohead opened the shop for its self-released seventh album In Rainbows, Billboard reported yesterday that the band Nine Inch Nails is now celebrating status as a "free agent" as well. Since May, Trent Reznor, the band's front man, has been in a very open dispute about album pricing with Interscope Records, a division of Universal Music Group. Last month, that dispute flared up with Reznor telling fans in Australia and China to steal the album versus paying the high costs to obtain a copy.

According to Billboard, Reznor is very happy "to finally have a direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate." This is similar to the situation Radiohead has presented to fans, allowing them to set their own price to download In Rainbows. A physical "discbox" sells at a set price around $82, but that physical set comes filled with much more than the standard album. Reznor had questioned the label for charging fans in Australia and China higher prices than in the United States and other regions. The Radiohead price is one set by the band, not the label. The question of high prices still remains though.

Unfortunately, while both of these cases present fans and listeners with improved "relations" it comes from artists that have achieved success and enjoy large and faithful fan bases. What happens to new artists that emerge and find a record industry unwilling to allow them to learn from these informative examples? Will the record industry allow an artist to build a fan base while maintaining the autonomy they wish? Will they be embraced by a record industry open to new ideas, or one that finds new ways to cash in - like taking shares of touring profits, for one?

According to Billboard, the Recording Industry Association of America is pushing the major labels to "discuss whether a new physical format is needed as an alternative to the CD." Although the RIAA is attempting to make sure that any new format is shared among the labels, I can't help but wonder what the point is.

I've repeatedly noted the demise of the CD and the growth of digital sales in the three months I have blogged here. Frankly, I don't think the RIAA has the labels' best interest in mind by pursuing a new format to replace the CD. That format clearly already exists in digital downloads. Why not seriously re-invest in the CD as a marketable format, rather than seeking yet another competing format?

Remember when the CD came out? People cried out about the death of vinyl. They've been crying about the death of the CD for a while now (I'm in that group), but let's face it: Digital formats are here to stay. The MP3 and other media files that can be played on pocket devices like Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPod and cell phones are easy to access, and though the transition from CD to digital file is slower than the switch from vinyl to CD was, it is still occurring (imagine what the iPhone may do to this situation). None of this counts to satellite radio subscribers who need neither a CD nor a portable player because their radio receiver is portable (this may be a generalization -- the few people I know that have XM or Sirius have stopped purchasing CDs and don't own MP3 players).

If the RIAA is worried about the compact disc, a new physical format is not the answer. Any new format will face the same competition with digital files that the CD is facing now. Either re-invest and change the CD or make the transition to digital files smoother.

The Police's Synchronicity. U2's Achtung Baby. Duran Duran's Rio. Nirvana's Nevermind. Hanson's Middle of Nowhere. Behold, in no particular order, my top-five album list (yes, I am perfectly serious about Hanson: pure pop perfection). This list has changed somewhat throughout the years, as the musical landscape and my personal tastes evolved. Now, all of these names are fairly dusty -- the newest one (Hanson) is already 10 years old, if you can believe it -- but it looks as though new contenders for the list may be harder to find in the future.

An article in today's New York Times business section details the music-industry trend away from the full album, which "only true fans" are now perceived to buy. Hearkening back to the days of 45s, but with a decidedly digital spin, artists and record label managers have acknowledged the increasing significance of the single. In 2006, according to Nielsen SoundScan, digital singles outsold tangible compact discs for the first time; so far in 2007, the digital-song business has spiked 54% to nearly 190 million tunes sold. While digital album sales are also on the rise, single sales are trumping full-album sales by a margin of 19 to 1. And overall album sales are down 16%. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is largely credited with this changing tide, of course, along with hundreds of blogs and MySpace pages offering downloadable singles. (MySpace is a division of News. Corp (NYSE: NWS)).