Creating a Merit-Based Music Economy A paper about the problems with the music market structure, possible corrections, and action items required for the fix -- PDF version Note: As of January 2009, this paper is getting a little old, but the underlying issue is in most ways structurally unchanged. Most people refer to the realm of "compulsory" or "blanket" licensing these days as "collective licensing" -- I remain agnostic as to whether compulsory or voluntary collective licensing is preferable, as even with voluntary collective licensing there will likely still need to be government oversight (the way the Department of Justice has a continuing "consent decree" that governs the voluntary licenses of ASCAP, BMI and SESAC). Bottom line: This problem still needs to be fixed, and collective licensing still seems to be the way to do it, so far as I can see. There are others with different opinions, but none of them have argued convincingly enough to change my opinion here.