A new frequency of radio is coming. Just like FM radio did, Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) is starting to take flight, and although you can't get it yet unless you buy a special receiver (just like when FM came out), time may be that it will push FM on to where AM currently is.
The DAB signals are currently free for anyone who can get them. But watch out. Recording industry is already taking action against piracy. Like regular radio, signals can be recorded and played back, and industry lobbyists requested that the FCC add copy protection to discourage piracy and illegal distribution.
This really boils me though. Is this the artists or the media moguls. I hate to sound like an anti-capitalists dog here, but when I was growing up we taped stuff off the radio sometimes, but mostly we taped off records, because records didn't last as long and didn't carry well.
So I kind of understand the hype about MP3s and CD copying, because CDs last long and are easy to carry around, although I think people are always going to want the official CD with the liner notes and all the songs and other media that they are putting on the CDs these days.
But radio is not like that. The major problem with copying from the radio was that you never knew when the song you wanted to copy was going to be on, and even if you did there was some DJ banter and station ID that overlapped the song, not to mention they often overlap one song with the next if there is a significant fade on the end of the previous song.
This made recording from the radio un-practical. Is this going to change in the digital age? I think it's still going to be un-practical to copy music this way. This sounds to me like money hungry executives who are too lazy or unwilling to change when the technology changes, too un-imaginative to think of a new way to make money that will use the technology and make everyone happy.
Instead they use the legal system and create a new criminal class. Thanks guys.