Imagine if downloading music were like watching television.

Instead of paying for every song we bought separately, we would be charged a monthly fee, just as we are charged for cable each month. Our music choices would be tracked so that artists and their managers would be compensated. And if we wanted "premium content," we would pay extra fees, just as we do for specialty TV channels.

That's the vision The Barenaked Ladies' Steven Page has for the future of music.

The current system in which music lovers are forced to choose between downloading illegally from rogue websites, or from paying song-by-song from sites that have limited collections, isn't working.

"If we look at the way people watch TV, if there was a transaction fee for every time you changed the channel, people would obviously stop watching TV," he explained to CTV.ca

"I think the answer lies not in charging for every piece of music you take, but in a flat fee."

He sees an evolution of the current system so that music artists and distributors are paid through a model that is either ad-based, or with a fee at the ISP level, or at the entry to the P2P (peer-to-peer) service -- or perhaps a combination.

The one thing he is sure of is that downloading has changed music and there is no going back.

Instead of finding ways to capitalize on this revolution, the music industry has wasted time attempting to fight it, Page contends. They've been trying to force music buyers back into the music stores, and threatening to sue them if they share their music peer-to-peer.

"Suing people back into the old system isn't going to work. What is going to work is working together with record companies and ISPs to create a way for charging for it," he says.

"As far as I'm concerned, there's money sitting on the table that they're not collecting. So the longer they don't, the longer we won't see any income."

Page and his bandmates have joined together with nearly 200 other Canadian music acts to form the Canadian Music Creators Coalition. They are against changes to federal laws that would make it easier for record companies to sue illegal downloaders. They say their members don't support suing music lovers, and want it known that the labels are pursuing the changes against their will.

"We cannot turn back the clock. So rather than trying to pull our audience back and asking them to change their behaviour -- which I think is futile -- what we have to do instead is take advantage of this," Page says.

There are already marketing research firms that can track monitor file-sharing networks. If the record industry could use those services and charge for what music is being traded, they could ensure that everyone -- including themselves -- was getting paid.

Perhaps market forces alone could convince downloaders to abandon illegal websites. If there were a good, reliable alternative, music fans would come to realize that rogue sites, with their viruses, spyware and Trojans, are a lot more hassle than they're worth.

As much as Page loves the mp3 revolution, he isn't expecting the CD to go the way of the vinyl LP anytime soon. Just as VHS didn't kill the movie industry, as many had predicted, and DVDs have found a place alongside TV, the need for CDs remains.

"I think CDs will continue. I think people enjoy the retail experience of buying and giving CDs," Page says.

"Let me put it this way: if music were like water, even though you could have regular tap water anytime you wanted, it wouldn't stop you from buying the musical version of bottled water [i.e.: CDs]. Even though people have access to water anytime they want, they still go and buy the luxury version as well."

On an artistic level, downloading is also changing the way musicians create music. Recent studies suggest that while Canadians are downloading plenty of 99-cent songs, they generally don't like to download albums. Does that mean the concept of albums -- and "concept" albums themselves such as "The Wall" -- will soon become extinct?

Maybe, but maybe it's all part of the evolution of music. Perhaps by being free of constraints of the medium, artists won't feel compelled to pad albums with filler or will release as much music at once as they chose.

"It makes you wonder if Miles Davis hasn't been restricted by the construct of a record when he made "Kind of Blue" -- we know he recorded plenty more -- would he have released a 2-hour DVD? Or maybe just a 10-minute EP?" wonders Page.

"I think in the future, there'll be all kinds of experimentation with the different forms."

The Barenaked Ladies themselves have already begun experimenting with form. They've released albums on USB flash drives, offering their fans songs, videos, and photo galleries in a tiny tool that can fit into a pocket.

Embracing such technologies is the Ladies' way of saying they know their fans are going to save the songs on a computer and they support them being able to copy their music to any device they choose.

"It helps to build trust between you and your fans," Page explains. "We have to create some trust with our fans because right now, the trust level is almost nil." 

"So by giving people the music and saying 'Do with it as you please,' then people don't think that we have to treat them as idiots or as criminals."