Since the 1999 launch of Napster, much ink has been spilt in discussions about the music industry's crumbling business model. What has not been given enough attention, however, is the crummy product that said model has been design to promote. According to the New York Times, what they sell is more than hazardous to the health, particularly that of youngsters:

Teenagers listen to an average of nearly 2.5 hours of music per day. Guess what they’re hearing about? One in three popular songs contains explicit references to drug or alcohol use, according to a new report in The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. That means kids are receiving about 35 references to substance abuse for every hour of music they listen to, the authors determined.

While songs about drugs and excess are nothing new, the issue is getting more attention because so many children now have regular access to music out of the earshot of parents. Nearly 9 out of 10 adolescents and teens have an MP3 player or a compact disc player in their bedrooms. Studies have long shown that media messages have a pronounced impact on childhood risk behaviors. Exposure to images of smoking in movies influences a child’s risk for picking up the habit. Alcohol use in movies and promotions is also linked to actual alcohol use.

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine studied the 279 most popular songs from 2005, based on reports from Billboard magazine, which tracks popular music. Whether a song contained a reference to drugs or alcohol varied by genre. Only 9 percent of pop songs had lyrics relating to drugs or alcohol. The number jumped to 14 percent for rock songs, 20 percent for R&B and hip-hop songs, 36 percent for country songs and 77 percent for rap songs.

It's is probably not accidental that rap music sales are collapsing. An outdated business model plus garbage products is not a recipe for success; it's a prescription for rivers of red ink. Bigger changes are in the offing.