My thoughts...
Okay, I think Napster and music piracy are the best things for the music scene right now. It helps artists that deserve money get money, and it takes away money from bands that dont deserve it. Now, this is a generalization of course but here is my logic. I personally d/l albums to listen to, then If I like them, I buy them, if I dont think its worth it, I delete from my HD. There are som rare cases where the cd i D/l is out of print or 25 bucks and I say **** it im keeping iy but whatever.
This practice allows me to expand my musical vocabulary by listening to many many diferent bands without risking my hard earned cash on buying a cd that sucks.
I think this is great. Why? Because if allowed to continue, it would either have to start producing quality music, or get a real job.
I also realise that there are unscrupulous folks who d/l albums like crazy and take money out of peoples pockets but, so what? Total record sales went up substantially since napsters inception, but the recording industry fails to recognize this. They focus on their study of american University students who use napster, and how it correlates with decreased record sales. If there is one thing you learn in first year university, its that correlation does not mean causation. You cannot draw the conclusion "because these people use napster, they have no reason to buy records anymore".
The only diference between pre-napster people and post-napster people is that now they know what they are buying before they shell out 20 bucks 4 a cd.
I think that music is meant to be art, and the majority of "musicians" who make the big dollars today certainly do not deserve it... Britney spears does not deserve millions of dollars, and quitre frankly, neither does metallica. They produce album after album of the same, boring (in my opinion) music. Now, Im not saying they should not be allowed to make and produce music, but make millions of dollars? Common, lets face it here, they are not struggling to put food on the table. The only reason Metallica is bent out of shape is because they are greedy, arrogant bastards.
If they were artists they would be happy in knowing that so many people enjoy their music and they get a pay cheque for making other people happy.
The other alternative the record buisness has is to reduce the price of their goddam cd's. Honestly, why does a cd cost 20 bucks? (canadian). And if you want b-sides you gotta pay 12-15 for like 4 songs, its freakin retarded. The music industry should be the ones on trial not napster.