Free music seems to be a god-given right for people nowadays. All you have to do is to fire up BitTorrent, surf to Mininova.org, search for the album you want and download it. If you have a fast connection, the entire "transaction" takes place in virtually minutes. The music industry has tried several deterrent methods, like suing the people who share and download the music. However it has been largely unsuccessful. Seems like downloading music is an unstoppable phenomenon of the Internet age.
I remember I used to use cassette players with two cassette slots to "copy" cassettes when I young. This was tedious and probably considered the most primitive form of piracy. However, there was still a feeling that the "copy" was inferior to the actual product, and eventually if I loved the songs I would get the actual tape.
Nowadays it is so much easier to pirate that some people don't even realise that they are doing it. Virtually anything that comes out of the computer speakers can be pirated, and it is close to cd quality. (Not many can hear the difference between say, 192kbps Mp3 vs Music straight from the cd) And even less care about the difference. What I'm saying is that basically recorded music, as long as you can play it on your computer, is doomed as a commercial product.
What I feel is that recorded music will go the way of advertisements and promotions for the artiste. This music will be used to spread awareness and the live shows will probably make up the bulk of the artiste's income.
Just like the past. Where people paid to go to theatres to see artistes perform.
And now, if artistes are going to make serious money out of their careers they will have to travel.
It's funny how we've gone one complete round with music distribution.
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