[brandondrury]

Good post, Lostpossum.

You made a lot of great points. In my opinion, the only sales that have been lost due to downloading are the compilation cds and one hit wonders. I remember all those god damned MTV Party To Go deals when I was in my early teens. All the "Heartland Music Presents" type of deals. Those are done. I'm guessing that not many people are rushing out to pick up each Bananarama album when you download Cruel Summer and be done with it. In fact, Cruel Summer is fun twice (my threshold may be higher than yours). After that, I'm bored. You'd certainly not use Cruel Summer as a motivator to buy an 80s pop music compilation anymore.

I always say "hear" a song because I really don't totally understand what it means to own a song. I can own a cd. So for me, I don't see an overwhelming difference between hearing Micheal Jackson on a NBC show vs downloading and hearing it. I guess Micheal is getting paid on NBC.

I actually like the way that Courtney Love said it in her I article that I linked to somewhere around here. She compared a musician to a waiter. If you like them, you give them a tip. To me, especially at this stage in my life when I'm not easily impressed, I'm not going to be blown away often. When I find something I like, I feel obligated to leave a nice tip.

Of course, there was a day when you had to shell out $15 or more to even hear a song. The fact that it's optional means that the people are less likely to actually spend the money. However, in my case, my Christmas list is not exactly full. Meaning, there haven't been that many cds released that are worth a shit. This is the problem for me.

Brandon