Will technology change what we now understand as the underground? Or has it already?

Why did an industry like music get into the trouble it's in now? Simply put, I believe that it happened when the industry lost sight of its biggest supporters.

Never adandon your ambassadors. I'm sure it's one of the basic principles of diplomacy, just as it should be in business.

The music industry in the 1980s discovered a new cash cow and decided to milk it. It was the CD, a new no-scratch (lie), last-forever (lie), yet more expensive (lie) format... which made your existing music collection instantly out-dated.

The truth was, CDs were much cheaper to produce than vinyl. Yet they sold in stores more expensively. Suddenly an entire generation had to spend up large on new stereos and the new format.

The profit margin was suddenly so in the industry's favour that you had to wonder... would the consumers strike back?

Eventually they did, of course. Witness Napster, and the new culture of musical "sharing".

What rich irony, when the one thing that could most threaten this industry was exactly what your parents had always urged you to do when you were a child. Share.

Of course, many in music circles leapt on file sharing as "stealing". Was it really? In the end, you didn't get the CD in its bought format, with all the art and packaging. All you got was a copy. Wasn't that what we could always get previously, through tapes?

Surely the only thing that had changed was the scale of sharing. It was suddenly massive.

Not all of the music industry suffered. Apple for instance owes much of its current stellar profits to music downloading, as witnessed by the iPod and iTunes music store phenomenon.

The company that always urged consumers to "Think Different" had done exactly that. The man who's background had been in computers and later animation, decided to do what nobody in music had considered. Change the rules.

The format was beautiful. One song, 99 American cents. Worth it to have an instant mobile song, avoid breaking laws and hurting artists? You bet, said millions of buyers.

Through iPod and iTunes, a new music industry had developed, one that worked with people, rather than against them.

It demonstated that people were still motivated by innovation, freedom and value. Not just by piracy.

It also demonstrated that greed and complacency in business could kill you. Lose your ambassadors, and they might take your industry with them.

And lastly, it demonstrated that just as it has always been, music was again being driven by the underground. Distasteful to many, but ultimately a critical catalyst, the culture of sharing had begun a wave in music that would soon roll into many new ideas and applications.

The message, like the best legal download, was crystal clear. Think and act different, and sweet music will soon be your's.