INTERNET MUSIC FINDS UNLIKELY ALLY IN FORMER UNIVERSAL HEAD

Frank Biondi, now chairman of Waterview Advisors LLC thinks record labels should put their product on the Internet. "It's the only defense to piracy," Biondi said. "Digital rights management has to be simple enough to get the product. You have to make it easy."

Biondi made the statements during a PricewaterhouseCoopers conference in New York on Sept. 19.

Biondi feels the industry's attack of Napster is a mistake. "Were Napster to lose and industry weren't to settle, industry and consumers (would be) faced with a dilemma. Consumers could go to peer-to-peer services while Napster may reappear in some territory where the copyright laws are different, but the labels still don't have control over the marketplace," he said.

The record industry has not been sitting idle while the digital revolution has taken place. Said Biondi: "The problem is less one of knowing how to do it versus the timing. (The industry) was faced with the proposition that if we don't do this right we've lost the organization."

Biondi did admit the business model that involves paying $3 for a single online "stinks." He said: "Only execs at other regimes are going to sign up for that."