Today in New York, 500 music company executives gathered for a historic conference at which the music business as we have come to know it was declared dead. Born in 1876 with the introduction of player piano rolls, the recording industry has fallen on rough times in the face of digital competition. Consider that the following statements were made at this gathering which were uncontroversial and would have been considered heresy mere months ago:

* DRM on purchased music is dead
* A utility pricing model or flat-rate fee for music might be the way to go
* Ad-supported streaming music sites like iMeem are legitimate players
* Indie music accounts for upwards of 30 percent of music sales
* Napster isn't losing $70 million per quarter (and is breaking even)
* The music business is a bastion of creativity and experimentation

The recording industry was 132 years old and is survived by thousands of digital music companies, independent musicians and geeks lik