Rock + Roll has always been about rebellion. From Alan Freed’s Moondog Coronation Ball in Cleveland, Ohio, the first rock + roll concert, to the original Woodstock to the Rock for Change tour of 2004 and, even closer to home, to the infamous last night at The Ritz here in Missoula.Rock music, all music, should be seen and heard live to be able to be fully appreciated. The 45 RPM, first developed by RCA in the 50s, the 8-tracks, the vinyl, the tapes, the CDs, even the MP3s are all incidental. Yes, artists must make a living, and they should be paid for what they do, but the current business model, which, strangely enough, seems to be based on the same type of business model that is shared between pimps and hookers, a business model encouraged by the Recording Industry Association of America, does not support innovative music + creativity + does not pay artists the money they deserve.

Napster began to change all of that. Napster was rebellious in the way that it delivered music to the people. The consumer now had a choice as to how he acquired his music. Now he had the opportunity to download his music for free. The money he saved could be spent at concerts where artists actually get paid. He could use the money he might have spent on an overpriced CD where most of the profits would go into the pockets of the suits at the RIAA to buy merchandise at a concert, where more of the money goes directly to artists.

Napster gets shut down. We see MP3.com get revamped. More legal download music sites spring up, from Rhapsody to the iTunes Music Store to Sony and Napster 2.0.

People still download music. Downloads do not hurt music sales – and this is a fact that must be understood. Music sales may be suffering from a variety of other ailments, including the poor economy, or, gasp!, mediocre music, but downloads are not the issue that the RIAA wants you to believe that it is.

Technology changed the way consumers and artists think about music distribution. People could now get music on Usenet or via P@P programs such as Grockster and Limewire. And now, Bittorrent.

Artists also realized that they have a unique opportunity to take back control of their music and its distribution. They are no longer chained to the record companies to help them distribute their music. They could release it themselves – on their websites.

Artists as diverse as Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys to REM and Radiohead to Wilco and the Smashing Pumpkins have embraced this new opportunity, and Radio Dystopia was founded on the idea that this opportunity is a good one which encourages artistic control of the music, of the creative process.

The first part of tonight’s show will explore artists who have released entire albums for free on their websites either before the album was available in stores, or as web exclusives. The second hour will push the limits of the conventional music industry as a way to encourage the industry to re-think its business model as I play Fiona Apple’s newest album that her record label, Sony, refuses to release.