Muxtape, the popular virtual mix tape music sharing service, was taken down today due to a “problem with the RIAA,” reads a note on their site. That “problem” likely has something to do with the storage and usage of copyrighted music. Those of us who have been fans of the service for months knew this was coming eventually, it was just a question of when the service would get popular enough for the Recording Industry Association of America to care.

Now it is, and now the RIAA does. (Though Muxtape claims no artists or labels have complained, someone clearly had a problem with the site over at the RIAA.)

But the RIAA is essentially putting gum over cracks in the Hoover Dam. This is not going to end. And in fact it’s only going to get worse until it one day explodes.

As much as the RIAA might like to think they can sue everyone to stop piracy, and as much as we all might like to think we are good people who would never steal music, neither positions reflect reality.

The situation surrounding the online music discovery site Pandora is arguably even worse. Company founder Tim Westergren recently said that Pandora may go under due to fees imposed on it by a federal panel last year. This high fee is only imposed on web radio, terrestrial radio has no such fee.

A deal is trying to be worked out to save Pandora, but it’s not looking good. “We’re approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision,” Westergren told The Washington Post.

Considering that Pandora and Muxtape are two of my favorite sites on the Internet, I’m obviously annoyed. But more, I’m perplexed. Both of these sites are absolutely brilliant for discovering and enjoying music — shouldn’t the labels and artists be embracing them? Figuring out how to make it work, rather than shutting taking them down?

At least one of the two sides is going to have to start compromising.

The RIAA is suing music fans, suing sites, suing web services. This enrages many fans. The fans in turn are taking music for free even as more paid options arise. This enrages the RIAA and the labels and many artists. Neither side thinks they’re wrong and everyone is pissed off. It’s just an awful situation.

Taxes?

Last year, Mike Arrington of TechCrunch argued that music is on the inevitable march towards being free. He had some good thoughts: That recorded music should basically be a loss-leader for live concerts and merchandise which make artists a ton of money anyway (at least big ones) — things that can’t be pirated. And some bad ones: That the government should create a music tax. (He thought it was a bad idea previously, but came to feel it was one of the few ways the industry could actually be saved.)

A few months later, Ethan Kaplan, the vice president of technology at Warner Brothers Records, wrote a post extolling the merits of music as an art form and wondered if the government shouldn’t pay for it through programs (which apparently is done in some places in Europe) or grants (which apparently Canada does).

Patronage?

The idea of grants sounds interesting, but governmental programs seem too bureaucratic for art. That got me thinking, why not just kick it old school — as in Renaissance old school and explore the idea of patronage once again? That is, why not have individuals or groups of people pay for artists to make music?

The idea of “democratic patronage” was laid out in an article early last year, by Mitch Ratcliffe of ZDNet. He was writing about the digital music sales startup Songslide, but that method still involves paying for music that has already been