Despite an upswing in CD sales last year, Andrew Lack, the CEO of Sony BMG, has the guts to admit that business is sturggling—an on Oscar night, of all times. Whether he's willing to face other realities is unclear. Lack predicts that the Supreme Court will see things his way in the upcoming ruling on file-sharing companies which, according to Lack, "have undermined basic principles in this country that have for 200 years protected artists, writers, producers." Maybe. But a deeper principle at play with file-sharing is the marketplace rule that consumers will get their culture by the simplest and most expedient method possible. In that light, technology always trumps politics. If you don't fill that expedient, preferred channel with product, and don't somehow build it into a business model, the marketplace will leave you behind.
