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IN A WORLD WHERE YOU CAN DOWNLOAD A PIRATED VERSION of the latest hit from your favourite artist for free before their album even hits the stores, the situation for the music industry has turned from slightly problematic to downright grim. Due to Napster, Kazaa and other like-minded sites and shareware programs, the music industry worldwide has shrunk from $40 billion in 2000 to around $26 billion in 2002. The result? Loss of jobs, fewer new artists signed to major labels, and an industry that is literally on the verge of collapse. We all like to hear the latest tunes (and free to boot), and there are certainly enough file traders out there to spread the love around. But when the well of new talent dries up (which is inevitable with the way things are going), the question arises: what are we going to do when there aren't any more new, big, shiny tunes for love or money?

Another problem plaguing the music industry is the fragmentation of online promotion and sales services. Currently, record labels have to go to separate companies for their online needs for promotion of their artists, online music sales and piracy protection. With no unified base for online support, it's not hard to see why the music industry has become an easy mark for file traders. What is hard to see though, is what can be done about it?

Enter Jim Meier, Yaletown local and a man who has been ranked as one of the 50 most powerful people in Vancouver's film and television industry. When he's not relaxing in the neighbourhood, Meier is CEO and President of Meier Worldwide Intermedia, a publicly traded company that has brought over $1 billion into BC's economy. Meier Worldwide became the largest movie studio space provider in North America, surpassing even major U.S. studios such as Warner Bros., Paramount and Disney. The company is currently involved in television and film production as well as the music industry through its subsidiary, Covenant Corporation, which Meier founded in 2002 and runs as CEO.

Covenant Corporation, an LA and Vancouver-based outfit, is now a leader in online anti-piracy, and is actually the only company in the world to employ the file traders themselves in the fight against music piracy. Covenant also acts as a bridge between the record label companies and the file traders, diffusing some of the animosity that has grown up between them and providing a more positive view of the recording industry.

With Covenant's launch of i-Fan, Meier has solved all of these problems in one fell swoop. i-Fan (interactive Fan) is the first desktop application to include an anti-piracy solution, artist promotion and digital music distribution capability all in one consumer application. How will it work? First of all, file traders, music fans, and corporations can all download i-Fan for free at www.i-fan.com. Next, the anti-piracy solution built into i-Fan is the Protected By Covenant (www.protectedbycovenant.com) system, which has been paying cash to music fans and P2P users to use their computers to help slow the amount of piracy of copyright material.

win cash and prizes while helping to support their favourite artists. Some prizes have already been awarded - to enthusiastic accolades from die-hard file traders.

Promotions and sales come next. i-Fan users can preview samples of music from their favourite artists before the songs have even been released on the radio. They can change the look of i-Fan through the use of customized skins and will be able to receive the latest news about their favourite artists, including concert dates. And last, but certainly not least, i-Fan users will be able to purchase their music online at the same place they preview it, with all the security of the Covenant system at work.

With all three services available in one place thanks to i-Fan, Covenant will be the first company able to meet all of the digital needs of the music industry with a much easier, more economical, and much more effective solution. This, in turn, will help the music industry recover from its losses and continue promoting all the new music that we music aficionados clamour for. A safer, more stable industry and plenty of tunes for all. Sounds promising, no?

And what's next for Meier and Covenant? Well, while the company is currently focusing on the music industry, plans are being made to expand its services into other areas, such as the video game industry and the motion picture and television industry. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, they say, and with i-Fan, Covenant stands poised to becoming the best guardian of performers' creations we've ever had and the strongest insurance that the music will, indeed, play on.