To see the future of mobile people look to Asia, what about the music business?

Ed Peto from The Register was in China trying to understand the music scene and has come back with some data and a money shot quote that is hard to ignore:

“What is certain is that the record label as you know it is dead and in its place have risen “digital entertainment companies”, who only produce single-track MP3s and are just as savvy at dealing with brand partnerships, pre-loaded mobile content and online guerilla marketing as they are at making music.”

People in my social sphere call me insane, for many reasons actually, but recently more often for proclaiming that record labels need to croak, piracy is the norm yet no one admits it and that the monetization model currently known as selling music is archaic. Ed proves my point fantastically and if you think that the Chinese market is the exception to the rule then you’re mistaken. Europe and the USA are heading right in that direction and PR moves like “Comes with Music” from Nokia (NYSE: NOK) are just there to delay the reality setting in that future attempts at charging money for music will result in failure.

I’m waiting, with my right leg twitching, for a mature P2P solution to rise and reach critical penetration. Who will make the Napster of mobile phones?

Update: MTV wrote a great article called “2007: The year the music industry broke” that runs through the major events that shocked the industry.