We all saw how fast Napster caught fire, then was swiftly extinguished by the long arm of the RIAA. Who could turn down the alure of free music? Five years later, YouTube caught fire. Many industry pundits expected a similar fate for the company. But wait! Unlike the draconian music industry, television producers figured out YouTube was actually a positive marketing tool. Could the record industry backpedal on years of lawsuits and start restricting consumers less?

Of course, peer2peer services are essentially dead now, at least for the general public. P2P is replaced with another acronym, DRM. Digital Rights Management helps you be honest, and helps prevent rampant piracy, but it also restricts where, how and how often music can be played. Until recently, DRM-ed music like Apple Computer Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iTunes was the only place to get music. But now DRM-ed track sales are starting to flatten out, and the music industry can't point to protected track sales increasing sales numbers as a way to justify their existence. Instead, selling less restrictive tracks could be a way to stimulate growth. Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) already struck a deal with Jessica Simpson's label, and sold an unrestricted version of her single "Public Affair" for $1.99. Now, Yahoo! says it's following suit with two more tracks this year, and expect other online music services to follow suit.

As the age of the iPod continues, expect more consumers to become savvy consumers and realize all their iTunes Music Store tracks aren't playable anywhere except their iPod. Perhaps we'll see a subscription model, such as Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) PlaysForSure initiative, gain more traction in the marketplace, and stir something up. PlaysForSure ensures device compatibility between music services and devices. DRM stays, but so does your music, as long as you switch to another PlaysForSure approved device.

In addition to PlaysForSure and Yahoo!'s experiment, Billboard Magazine lists a few other companies to watch. Among them, Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), News Corp's (NYSE:NWS) MySpace, LimeWire and eMusic.