Bravo!

Quite frankly (and I KNOW this is going to make me unpopular), I have ZERO problems with music piracy, with rare exception. If the music can be purchased directly from the artists, I willl HAPPILY pay for it. A successful example of this concept can be found at Gridlock's website .

However, for everyone who "want to buy" music (and Bitt, this isn't referring to your comment), let's see where your money goes:



Hrm... I can't remember the last time I wanted to give the record store $6 as thanks for letting me shop in their store. Nor do I feel that I should pay the record company for something I neither want nor need (the physical media).

I would be more than happy, however, to send the artists their royalty directly. I just need an address. But I refuse to pay the prostate-raping prices the American music machine wants to charge me. Especially when I don't want them shipping the CD from Japan anyways. Just let me pay a FAIR price for the music, then give me my FTP username and password, RIAA. I'll download it, thank you very much. Until then....

Another thing to consider is that while many people say "Download music without paying for it is WRONG!", they seem to have no problem paying pennies per MB to pull it from quasi-legal sites in Russia. (Which I must admit have VERY good selections.)

Like I said, I know this may probably make me fairly unpopular here, but I'm not going to lie and wring my hands and say "Oh, the poor record execs!" just for the sake of being popular.