I know this is problem been disscussed, but i seriously think that organisations such as Napster and Audiogalaxy do not harm the music industry, but infact help it.
I discovered Audiogalaxy about a year and a half ago and preceded to download many songs from it, by new bands i did not no. Many of these new band i really liked and because of the website and free downloading i bought their cds, e,g Sublime, Powderfinger, Counting Crows. Without audiogalaxy i would probably not have heard of these bands, or if i had would not have been inclined to buy their cds as i would have no means of listening to their music first.
The music industry, namely The RIAA, claims that MP3 downloading takes money away from musciains, but they view ‘muscians’ as BSB or westlife, or any of these pathetic boy bands and other manafactured ‘music groups’. I argue that because of AG and Napster the smaller bands are able to have their music broadcast free over the internet for music fans to discover and then make an educated decision of whether or not they want to buy their CD’s.
However the RIAA still refuses to listen and sues the site, i find this to be in keeping with the state of the music industry at the moment, and to be honest i cant see a way out of it, i know that in America you have more indepentent that play slighlty more alternative music, but over here in Britain their is none, Radio 1 is a joke, and their is nothing else.
How many other people have actually bought cds they would not have bought as a result of these MP3 sites, i know that myself and many of my friends all feel the same, but the sad fact is i dont see how its going to change. 
As this is less a discussion of the Euterpean or Polyhymniac Arts than a poll over the morality of Glomming Free Music, I’m going to move the thread to IMHO.
The idea that music downloading reduces CD sales is factually indefensible. No causal relationship has ever been established between the rise of file sharing services and people not buying CDs. Myself, most of the CDs I own I bought because I downloaded the music first, then decided that I wanted the CD. The primary reason I don’t buy MORE CDs is because of the price. They’re expensive!
Well FDISK, in your case, if you sample music before you buy it, then you’re more likely to buy a good album than a bad one. I know if I were a lousy artist, I’d be up in arms about that!
but if you were a lousy artist then you dont deserve to have your album bought, however, its because of the internet that people might discover people’s music and decide whether or not they want it, so person A might hate a band they find, but person B might love them and buy their cd, whereas before neither A nor B would have been able to find their music.
IMHO, file sharing is much more dangerous to the recording industry than it is to the music industry.
I think it is important to recognize that music has been around for centuries, recordings, for decades. When I look in the paper at who is performing at local clubs, I often go online to attempt to find their recordings before deciding if I am going to attend their show.
It seems to me, that once all the dust settles, it will be easier for an artist to make a living performing in front of an audience, and harder to live off of record revenues. You decide if that is a good thing or bad thing.
THere may not be a negative effect between DL and sales - it may be positive but…
Since the record Co’s own the music (via contract) they can choose to sell it anyway they want even if it leads to less revinue then they way you what them to sell it.
Didn’t record companies have a shit fit when blank audio tapes came out, so a user could record a song off the radio rather than buy the casette? Did that adversely effect album sales?
Same animal.
-Dirty
Janis Ian would agree with you.
In general, file-sharing has proved beneficial to these people.
But there’s another point that hasn’t been considered. See, I used to f***-s****, but I found another source for free music.
The public library.
Check out a CD. Rip it. Make my copy. Return the disk.
Faster and safer than going on-line with my 56K dial-up.
Yes, it does prevent me from getting the latest hits, and there are some artists who will never appear with reach of the two library systems I have access to, but that still leaves several thousands CDs to explore.
True though this is, I don’t think that the fact that they don’t deserve something has ever stopped anyone from whining about not getting it.