On Sept. 29, The Offspring will make the first single of its upcoming album available on its web site. A month later, the band will post the rest of the album – in its entirety. In addition, if you provide them with your e-mail, you’re eligible to win a $1 million prize from the band’s own pockets. The band believe this will increase the sales of the CD. Its label, Sony Music, is a little worried. Sony Music is one of the big five record labels currently suing Napster for copyright infringement and lost sales. The Offspring’s idea that releasing an entire album online would increase sales is in direct contraction to what Sony Music will have to argue in court and could dramatically effect the outcome of its lawsuit against Napster. The point The Offspring is trying to make is simple. People who sample music online are more likely to buy full-length albums. That was certainly true of the last album, “Americana.” Listeners downloaded the album’s hit single, “Pretty Fly (for a White Guy),” over 22 million times. Half that many ended up buying the album. In addition, studies have yet to show concrete evidence of a decrease in sales nationwide. Local shops may complain about seeing fewer customers, but to blame Napster as the sole cause would be like linking violence in the media to violent behavior. It’s not that simple. For example, I used to give all my business to Peeples Music until I discovered a magical little place called barnesandnoble.com. I still buy locally for new releases, like “Please Come Home . Mr. Bulbous” by King’s X, because I need those albums the day they come out. But for older releases, I’d rather save a few bucks and wait for UPS to deliver. In the last year, I must have purchased thirty albums that way. I know I’m not alone. Nationwide, people are buying more albums. Statistics from the Recording Industry Association of America, trade consortium of every significant record label, show that in the first half of this year, music consumers purchased 20 million more CD products than the first half of last year. “Digital downloading is not hurting CD sales,” says the Offspring’s manager, Jim Guerinot. It’s hard to disagree with him. Mass-marketed pop acts have little trouble selling over 10 million copies per release. Pseudo-artists like N’Sync and the Backstreet Boys are breaking records as to how fast music can move off the shelves of over priced stores such as Scam Goody. N’Sync’s “No Strings Attached” became the first album to sell over seven million copies in its first RIAA audit. The Backstreet Boy’s self-titled CD sold 16 million copies. “Millennium” sold 12 million. The RIAA’s own CEO doesn’t even believe the labels are losing money. In an interview with The Standard, CEO Hilary Rosen, admitted that Napster’s heaviest users buy the most albums: “I never lose sight of the fact that the people who are the most aggressive downloaders of free or unauthorized music are the biggest music fans. Those are the people who support the legitimate music market, who buy the records, buy the concert tickets, buy the T-shirts.” Money is not really the issue. What the RIAA stands to lose is its chokehold on the way music is created, produced and sold. At a time when the Smashing Pumpkins can release “Machina II: The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music” on twenty-five vinyl copies, without advertisement and not worry about being heard, the RIAA finds itself losing relevance. Industry dominance is the reason it sued Diamond Multimedia for making a portable MP3 player, it is the reason they sued mp3.com, and it is the reason they sued Napster. Money can’t be the issue because with millions of Napster users swapping files online, record labels’ purses are fatter than ever. To sue for copyright infringement would be hypocritical. Record labels are the ones abusing copyrights by demanding it from artists then exploiting it in every possible way. Its already reconciled that by killing Napster, people will sample less music and buy fewer CDs. Still, the RIAA will make this sacrifice because the stranglehold on the way music is distributed and played since the days of the phonograph is much more important than any sum of money. That is the essence of what the RIAA is – control. It wants you to buy the CD products it makes, at prices it regulates, and in music devices it approves. If music moves to the web, it will be on the record label’s terms when it’s good and ready. Until then, it will call upon the RIAA to sue every little bastard who thinks otherwise.