Unless you've been living in a cave minus a PC for a year or so, you've undoubtedly heard about MP3.com and its ongoing, high-profile battle over the future of music distribution. The San Diego-based company’s chief executive, 32-year-old Michael Robertson, has seen to that, rising to such a guru-like status among the diverse mix of online-music aficionados that it’s small wonder he's Public Enemy Numero Uno to old-guard record industry executives.

Since its debut with a handful of employees two years ago this month, MP3.com under Robertson's tireless leadership has set its sights squarely on the so-called "Big Five" record labels (Sony Music, EMI, Warner Music, BMG and Universal Music) and their collective stranglehold on the $40 billion music business worldwide. Its initial public offering last July wowed even the most cynical Wall streeters as its stock soared at the opening bell from $28 to $105 before settling in comfortably at $63.31 for the day and putting its market value at roughly $3.9 billion — without producing a lick of profit.

The Net game is much like a debutante ball — he (or she) who's most popular rules. And arguably no one plays the game better than Robertson, a UCSD graduate in cognitive science who has parlayed the simple curiosity of a digital audio format into a full-frenzied global phenomenon that has the major labels scrambling to catch up while simultaneously trying, in the eyes of Robertson, to cripple MP3.com financially.

MP3.com seems to be forging new alliances on a near-daily basis with like-minded Internet companies, and now claims a stable of 50,000 artists and 300,000 downloadable tracks in the audio format from which the company’s name hails.

Recent announcements have the company: launching online radio stations; hosting a competition among musicians ages 18 to 30 who'd like to score a silent feature film for Turner Classic Movies; hopping into the e-greeting-card business; partnering with Livemusicchannel.com, an online and TV live-concert provider to offer streaming video of recorded live concerts; and unveiling its controversial Instant Listening Service and Beam-It features.

Those two new services, uncorked in January as part of MP3.com's "music service provider" initiative, drew the legal fire of the Recording Industry Association of America, which has sued MP3.com seeking copyright-infringement damages in the neighborhood, Robertson estimates, of $50 billion. The RIAA claims the company built an unauthorized database of more than 40,000 copyrighted CDs under its My.MP3.com banner, which allows consumers to listen to music online if they already own the CD. The company has argued the service falls under the copyright law's "fair use" exemptions, which allows users to make copies of music they own for personal use.

Never to be outmaneuvered, MP3.com last month countersued the RIAA and its president, Hilary Rosen, over its alleged "bullying tactics," including a claim that Rosen and other RIAA execs made disparaging remarks to some of MP3.com's financial partners and quizzed analysts shortly before suing.

Meanwhile, the Big Five are working on deals of their own to get some or all of their catalogs online, and some analysts can’t help but notice the steady blows taken in recent weeks by MP3.com's stock price, which by Feb. 22 had tumbled to $20.17 a share as behemoths like AOL and Time Warner talk merger, as do EMI and TW's Warner Music Group. The fall left its market cap at $1.4 billion.

Still, Robertson and the 275 employees around him remain determined to win the day. Says the ever-rambunctious CEO: "There's been no innovation from the major record labels when it comes to digital music. Warner Records and EMI merging is like two dinosaurs getting married. It’s a big event, but it won’t stop the asteroid."

— John Lamb