Bram Cohen founder of BitTorrent talks about the fall of the traditional model of the music industry. And why his technology isn’t to blame.

I would agree. Technology, like the file sharing service BitTorrent, are just changing business models more than destroying the music industry. Look at the technology disruptor everyone loves, the iPad. The iPad is killing many industries at once (publishing, maps, paper) and though the executives in those business my grumble – they also realize it’s a technology change that they must adapt to rather than simply complain it’s destroying their business if they want to survive.

It’s a bit like the train industry in the 1950s complaining that the emerging airlines are destroying their business by taking away passengers for the speed of air travel. Trains adapted by focusing less on passengers and finding revenue in doing where they had an advantage, moving large amounts of freight. In the same manner, rather than bitching, the music industry has to let go of they way things were done and find a way to find their advantages to make revenue.

I remember at a seminar, a music exec from then IRS bemoaned, “how do you compete with free?” Less than a year later, iTunes came on the scene and showed them how. It’s another example how the music industry only sees technology and change as a threat. And not as an opportunity it can capitalize on.

You can’t go back. Time to go forward.

See the discussion with a skeptical Andrew Keen on TechCrunch TV.