Online Music Hitting False Notes

Updated from 11:17 a.m. EDT

The online music business is booming, but is anybody making real money at it?

If you're doing the actual selling of music -- or music subscriptions -- to consumers, the short-term answer appears to be not much. Competition, marketing expenses, a faulty business model, slow-changing consumer attitudes and the use by some companies of music as a lure to sell other goods and services have all conspired to keep the business largely in the red.

And that's not likely to change anytime soon, no matter -- or arguably because of -- how many millions of songs Apple Computer (AAPL Quote) sells through its iTunes music store, analysts say. ...