Music revolution

If any of y'all have been paying attention, the RIAA is lobbying to start charging radio stations (historically, their free advertising venues) for playing recorded music. This could change the face of over-the-air radio, because in the past record companies have typically paid radio stations to play their music.
My question is this: why is it so hard for them to just bow to the "supply-and-demand" rules of a capitalist economy? They've kept prices for recorded media artificially high for (literally) decades, and don't see that at least part of the solution is to lower prices. The average cost of producing a CD is (and has been for quite some time, even accounting for inflation) about $1. Artist contracts typically return about $1 to the artist for each album sold. So where does the rest of the $12-$19 for a CD go (that's at least a 600% markup)? To the record company, of course. And record company execs are the ones leading the way with the highly publicized suits and legislation battles. And in this battle, I'm guessing that megacorporations like Clear Channel have previously been sitting on the sidelines. With these monsters going at each other, there is bound to be some far-reaching change coming.

Now, one of the reasons I put this here is that the basis for all of this is, as far as I can tell, simple, unfettered GREED. Record company execs want to maintain their indulgent, hedonistic lifestyles, and they're willing to fight dirty to do it. If all of those folks actually lose their sources of wealth, and the music economy crashes, the bad boys (and girls) of the music world will fade from the public eye and maybe we'll be able to restore some sense and morality to this world.