The Internet has been described, by enthusiasts, as a global conversation, a giant encyclopedia or a 24-hour news service -- and by detractors as the world's most technologically advanced time waster. What peeves record-company executives, however, is how many people see it as a free music store.

One intriguing alternative is the subscription plan allowing unlimited downloads that is currently offered by Napster, Yahoo and Rhapsody. (Each also maintains a traditional $1-a-song service.) Microsoft, Target, MTV and AOL have also announced plans to get into this subscription business, and even Apple is rumored be interested.

Will any of these approaches be enough to quell the musical thirst of the millions who, at the moment, get their music from free file-swapping services? The trend is shifting, but only infinitesimally. Despite all of Apple's success selling songs online, a recent study by NPD Group, a market research company, says that nearly 10 times as much online music is swapped as is bought.

One thing, though, is already clear: the downloadable-music business is still in its fumbling, bumbling infancy. It may take the music stores several more years of hammering away at their remaining problems -- software complexity, steep pricing and holes in their song catalogs -- before the recording industry can think of the Web without wincing.

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