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In many ways, the gloom & doom associated with music these days is unsubstantiated. Here at SXSW, you have artists & THE MAN behind them spending thousands of dollars each to attend, eat and lodge here in lovely Austin (as I was told yesterday, a dot of blue in a sea of red). There’s much talk about new business models, freedom for artists and more & more revenue & publicity streams.

Of course much of what’s being spoken about spits in the face of rock ‘n roll, which many people were first introduced to in their youth as a way to escape from their parents, school, suburbs, job, boredom and heartbreak. Mechanical royalties? Recoup-ables? $2.99 monthly recurring per ringtone charges (when a high-quality song purchase costs 99 cents)?

Let’s rawk!

Is music 1.0 really over? Part of me is hoping to visit one of the best record stores in the country, Waterloo Records, before I leave Austin. But in other ways it feels like a bit of a hollow pilgrimage. Have you shopped for CDs in a physical store? It feels incredibly archaic and funny enough, nostalgic. But Waterloo does things a bit different than shopping at your local Target. You want to buy music there! Editorial thoughts are placed in the vicinity of releases. Staff appear that they actually like music. While visiting Waterloo last year, I bumped into a music executive I know and asked him why a store like this exists here and not in more cities. “Because Austin is a music city.” Pardon? I understand completely why he would say that, but is there such a thing as a music city? Orlando does not have music or people who consume music? Thankfully the net doesn’t segregate.

But yes, the series of tubes and the burning phenomenon have allowed music to flow like water, often times freely. And getting people to pay $12.95 for access to 99% of recorded music has been somewhat fruitless. In a panel on that topic, representatives from Rhapsody and Napster were both very agitated with the notion that what they offer is “music rental”. They said that was like saying you rent TV when you have cable. Renting music is unsexy, but having it has a service like electricity takes on a different notion.

While one ship is indeed sinking a bit (physical), another is rising (zeros and ones). But one has to remember… at the end of the digital dawn, it’s all about a song moving you and the emotions which come flowing back when you hear it again.