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In fact, the volume and intensity of the statements issued since yesterday's proceedings—during which the status quo was left in place and the next phase in the process left undetermined—are almost inversely proportional to those of the terse, relatively placid hearing.

BMG Chief Marketing Officer and President, New Technology Kevin Conroy took issue with Napster head Hank Barry's characterization of the impasse in negotiations with labels. "Napster's statement is completely inaccurate," declared Conroy. "BMG has in fact discussed various business proposals with Napster. But Napster has never addressed the important issue of licensing nor proposed anything approaching a sound, legitimate business model."

Answered Barry: "I stand by what I said earlier. Since I joined Napster, I have made serious proposals to each of the major record companies and their music publishing affiliates. Each proposal would result in payments of substantial percentages of Napster's expected revenues to compensate artists and rights-holders. The most conservative estimates would generate more than half a billion dollars in payments to the record industry in the first year alone. I repeat: every one of these proposals has been rejected, and the record companies have made no counterproposals."

"The Napster case points out the complexity inherent in this new business. But similar to all new media, we expect it to be worked out through a combination of legislation, litigation and negotiation," says Listen.com President/COO Sean Ryan. "When that shakes out, we expect the industry will have an incredibly lucrative business that should result in more music getting out to more people."

Ryan underscores that months of uncertainty remain before things are resolved. "What this all boils down to," he explains, "is who gets paid, how much and when."

But some folks who stand to get paid in the future are less sanguine about the present.

Arista hip-hop duo Outkast fired off a livid rebuke to the file-sharing service over the ready availability of its new album, "Stankonia," via illegitimate online channels: "As artists, we appreciate the anticipation our fans have for our music. However, it is also very important for us to present the music in a creative format that is representative of our personalities, as our fans expect nothing less.

"We should have control over how our music is presented to our fans, and we feel that it is a creative invasion to spread our unfinished album over the Net without our knowledge," concludes the brief but fiery release. "We feel musically and personally offended."

Artists Against Piracy Executive Director Noah Stone's communiqu echoes a oft-heard complaint. "There is a real excitement for music online for both artists and music fans," Stone avers. "Unfortunately, Napster is offering artists less control. It has denied artists the ability to effectively market music online and has created an environment in which the consumers believes music should be free."

Echoes Songwriters Guild of America president and songwriter ("Can't Help Falling in Love with You," "The Lion Sleeps Tonight") George David Weiss: "I fear as never before for the future of American songwriters."

Bummer. There are probably a lot of people who are less upset about all this, but they didn't put out dramatic press releases.

Still, if anything can unite the entire music world in fearing for the future, it's the prospect of further hitsdailydouble.com coverage of this developing story.