Well, I have a burner myself so I've been burning CDs for sometime. I also all up on the new-Napsters, and I buy "mix" CDs all the time.
To me, the artist is getting burned by the record company anyways so its really not like if everyone bought the CD all of a sudden their cut would jump tenfold.
I think the artists are being used as puppets in the whole napster controversy because its TOURING that actually puts money in the pockets of the artist. The record company gets all the money from the album sales.
With this new technology it becomes harder for the companies to sell us a wack artist or a wack CD. Before, they could carbon-copy any act and people would buy the CD, only to find out that there are only 3 good songs on the album. With this, you can decide whether or not an artist is worth supporting. I feel that this issue is being left out of the debate. The consumer that is tired of being duped into buying subpar releases has finally found a way "to stick it to the man."
That being said, I always support the artists that are really worth my money.
Lastly, lets not forget that NSync crushes records everytime they release an album, so its obvious that an artist can still stay afloat in the age of file-sharing.
|