A Peer-to-Peer Future

From the FT:

Shawn Fanning's new company, dubbed Snocap, was poised to announce on Monday that it would start allowing all artists and record labels to register their music in a database designed to serve as a global clearing house that can identify digital tracks shared across the net and collect royalties on behalf of copyright owners.
...
"This registry is key to creating a world of authorised peer-to-peer networks that will attract music fans en masse - enabling consumers to share and discover new artists in much the same fashion as they did with old P2P - but done in a way that respects the rights holder," Mr Fanning, who serves as Snocap's chief strategy officer, said.

Finally. I imagine this kind of system will eventually replace the current advertising model that exists on blogs as well. I have not seen it yet but whether it is this product or something else the value added through distribution, filtering or promotion is falling to zero so I don't understand how money doesn't end up flowing directly from consumers to producers.