The feature article in this issue about multimedia music databases (p.
14) suggests that the free browsing and sampling approach to well-str
uctured, content-rich, genuine databases may represent a model and a t
rend for others in our industry to follow. You may feel that this free
-for-all attitude will be short-lived, and just a honeymoon behavior,
and you may as well wonder who is going to pay the piper in the long r
un?