I spy a hole in this argument.
If you like a particular artist's music and copy their CD for your mates, what's going to happen to it? They'll rip the MP3s off the CD and put them straight into the music library shared by their P2P software. All of their friends and even random strangers on the internet will then be able to download it without paying for so much as a blank CD.

Even assuming they don't immediately rip the CD, they'll get together the next time the artist brings out a CD and say "Let's all chip in a quid, buy the CD between us then copy it for everybody." Result: twenty different people are listening to the one and only CD the artist has sold.

Granted, some people out there do have a conscience and will gladly support up-and-coming artists by buying their own copy of their albums, but they are outnumbered I don't know how many million to one by those who have grown up half-genuinely believing that music is a free resource provided for their entertainment by people of independent means, and they almost certainly do not constitute a sufficiently numerous public to support an artist full-time. This is exactly why concert tickets, which used to cost £30, now cost £150.
( .Yeti. El amor en los tiempos del cólera, Mon 14 Nov 2011, 21:49, 2 replies)

Concert tickets that cost £150
are sold to the gullible twats who don't understand what real live music is about. The huge monies are for all the poncy lighting, pyrotechnics, inflatables and hangers-on that are required to entertain the brain-dead in stadium sized "venues". These distractions where the performance is either completely manufactured or so impersonal because you're 100 yards from the stage as to make it pointless attending. I know, because I've been to a few of these "concerts" and have almost invariably left with the feeling that somehow my soul had been diminished, rather than enriched, by the experience. There are, of course exceptions to this rule, but I won't digress any more atm.

About 5 years ago, I saw Franck Black (even if you don't like him, he's still "big" in the music scene) at a local venue, playing to a crowd of about 800 for a tenner. That's right, a tenner.

Why on earth does anyone think that a musician, even a very, very good one deserves untold riches for the rest of their lives for performing and recording a few songs just a few times?
( P-MONKE We're all fucked, Mon 14 Nov 2011, 22:15, closed)

quite so
quite so
(teasus likes tea, Tue 15 Nov 2011, 15:33, closed)

yeah but
the more people listen to the music, if it's good, the more people are likely to go and see the band. Even if you don't pay to see them the venue will be paying them. This is usually based on either the size of the crowd they can pull or the drinks takings at the end of the night.

Also, I've noticed that I haven't spend much less on music when I've pirate it. I just buy stuff that's less well known.
(teasus likes tea, Tue 15 Nov 2011, 15:39, closed)