< Watch CBS Videos Online This is embarrassing on so many levels. It's embarrassing that the record industry pursued this case this hard. It's embarrassing that the jury awarded $1.92 million in damages. But mostly, it's embarrassing that instead of talking about an exciting, new record, the focus is still on file sharing.

"This really is high stakes, if this can't work then what will," he (Jupiter analyst Mark Mulligan) said.

Yes, this truly is high stakes. For $16.30-$24.50 (US) per month, Virgin Media broadband customers will be able to stream and download an unlimited number of tracks. Right now the service only has the Universal catalogue, but apparently they're hoping to add more labels by the time the service is launched.

Of course, for something like this to work there are a lot of ifs, but it's certainly something that has some real potential. At the very least, it shows creative thinking and an interest in risk taking from Universal and Virgin.

Just finished reading Hank Bordowitz 's Dirty Little Secrets of the Record Business .  To cut to the chase, I liked it! The book is very well written and is a first rate overview of the record business. Anyone who's interested in the underpinnings of the record industry could do worse than pick up DLSRB . I have two minor criticisms of the book. Firstly, and perhaps selfishly on my part, there is little that relates to an indie artist like me. This is a criticism I have with many music business …