The Times Online's Dan Sabbagh has an interesting take on today's record business. He contrasts the unique efforts of pop artist Shayan Italia, whose new video amassed 190,000 plays in the first 24 hours in was on YouTube, with the more traditional story of Duffy, a singer signed to Universal Music Group. Italia has, with the help of investors' £500,000 (sold in £12,000 blocks), achieved a only a modicum of success but did it without the help of a record label. Duffy, who went to UMG from Rough Trade, has achieved great success with her new album, Rockferry, in a far more traditional manner and with very few YouTube views and little online fanfare.

Rockferry shifted 180,000 CDs in its first week, worth rather more than 190,000 views on YouTube, without the help of a television programme talent contest or any internet nonsense. In fact, the album was marketed conventionally to entice the mainstream buyer.

Nevertheless, despite these simple facts, people get very excited about the death of the record company and about finding clever ways to ward off its demise. But it is easy to get distracted: these companies are really creative businesses, allying marketing muscle with nothing more complicated than good music.

Spending too much time banging on about a new business model while failing to discover new acts, hiring management with little credibility in the industry or simply not bidding for talent when necessary are sure ways to fail, as Guy Hands may find out if he is not careful.

After all, people who buy or steal music do not care about how the music business should reinvent itself. What they want to do is listen to songs they like.

He has a point. Most people -- not all but most -- do not care a great deal about how the business needs new models. They want music and will not get involved with policy issues and the nuts and bolts of business. And the drive for new models and different ways to monetize catalogs cannot take away from music companies' entire reason for being: to find and develop (and quickly drop some) new artists.

Sabbagh shares my view on the death of the record label, as in it's not going to happen. But then again, he writes media analysis. Were he a tech journalist I'm sure our opinions would differ.

"For all his talent," writes Sabbagh of Italia, "the big break is yet to come and there is not yet any return for the investors who are taking part in an exercise that is supposed to prove that the great rock'n'roll swindle is dead."

One more thing...Duffy's album sold 180,000 in its first week...in a country with one-third the population of the U.S. This country's top seller last week was an Alan Jackson new release with sales of only 119,000. Sheesh.