Personally, if i had never been able to access songs via the internet, i dread to think what type of music that i would be into. I don't even know if i would be into music. Fair enough downloading music gives the artists & RIAA, the shits, but hey, the I-pod has put the icing on the cake really. It's just encouraging people the download songs etc. I think by being able to use the internet to listen, download music, you discover so many cool bands that without this technology you would have never discovered. Some artists, like the internet because it helps get them 'known' and they even put mp3s up for download.
It's not like CD sales are going to come to an end, i believe if you really love a band, no matter how tight/povo you are, if you really love them; you will still buy their cd or goto one of their gigs or buy some of their merch etc... either way your still contibuting money to them. Well maybe oneday a shop selling blank cd's will make more money than leading edge or HMV
, but i doubt it.
Seriously but, even if they cracked down on music and downloading songs, they would never win. They only sue the big shots, the people who are running the servers, and are incharge of such p2p programs which host the music files to be downloaded.
Theres so many bands today, that have mp3's for download on their website, there's more than you can poke a stick at.
Peace.