MBW Views is a series of op-eds from eminent music industry people… with something to say. I came to the music industry the way scientists sometimes stumble onto their most important scientific endeavors: not by design, but by noticing that something was structurally wrong, and that no one was asking why. For most of the twentieth century, the music industry was built on a simple and unavoidable transaction: if you wanted music, you bought it. But a closer look at why fans actually behave this way tells a different story. The music industry has spent a decade building more sophisticated boxes for a problem it refuses to correctly name.