Brisbane, Australia-based writer Andrew McMillen interviewed Mike for West Australian festival One Movement For Music. Andrew is coordinating content for the festival's official blog, OneMovementWord.com, in the lead-up to its October 2009 debut.

Mike: I think there are two key issues:

On the legal side, I'm definitely concerned. The industry has long focused on a legal path to protecting and extending their business model in the face of any sort of innovation that challenges that old business model. And I think that harms new business models and musicians who embrace them. The innovation that's occurring has been enormously empowering to musicians, and much of what is happening on the legal front could serve to hold that back. And the end result, I'm afraid, would actually be less creativity, less music and fewer useful business models for musicians. And that's quite troubling.

You wrote in a Techdirt article that you’re in the camp of "folks who never buy single tracks, but always look to buy the full albums of bands I like". How have your music tastes changed in the internet age?

Yeah, actually, this is a really good question, and it's a point I've been trying to make for a long time. There are solutions in this industry that truly are (as cliche as it sounds) win-win-win, where all parties are better off. Yet, so many of the old guard view the industry as a zero sum game — which is that if someone else is making a dollar, it's a dollar I've lost. So the idea that someone could get something for free is viewed as a "loss" even if, in the long run, it brings back $10 dollars (or more). So, because of that view, some have always treated the market as a competition to get the very last dollar, and that doesn't make for a very "united" front between artists, the industry and fans. Instead, you get all grabbing for scraps, even if it means everyone's worse off.

I'm very hopeful that a growing generation of folks are beginning to recognize that by working together, these new models actually do benefit everyone — including the fans and the industry — in such a way that everyone is happy with the results, rather than anyone having to pull one extra dollar. It may be idealistic or utopian, but I think it's possible. It will require a lot more success stories, a lot more examples, a lot more money to be made — and perhaps a few of the "old guard" to retire.
But it will happen, at least to a certain extent. There will never be perfect bliss, of course. But the resulting industry can be a lot more aligned where everyone benefits when certain things happen.

Aside from Techdirt, where are the most important discussions about the changing music industry taking place?

I think they're happening all over the place. Hypebot is a great blog. Music Ally. I actually think that Wired and News.com have some of the better discussions on these issues as well.

Mike's opinions on technology, law, economics and entertainment are read by thousands daily on Techdirt.com. Contact Mike via Techdirt.com or Twitter. This edited interview originally appeared on OneMovementWord.com, the official blog of the West Australian One Movement For Music festival. A full interview transcript is located at writer Andrew McMillen's blog. Contact Andrew via email or Twitter.