Oh, I didn't mean to argue with you -- just the chart. In fact, most of my arguments are intended to point out that the record company and big artists are making more than it shows and that the small artists are making nothing.

Unlike you, I do want the CD, if for no other reason than the backup. I certainly think that that's worth $0.75 to me. But that's a non-issue, really. I also have worked in the retail industry and understand where the money goes there. While I'm not too happy about distributors making so much money, I do think that having a retail establishment is important, especially to people who want a physical copy.

However, I do think that the recording industry is screwing both the producers and consumers. It's another Enron and has been for a long time.

In the best of both worlds, they would press CDs and sell them as usual (hopefully with some reform in the industry to lower prices somewhat) and also sell them online. Ideally, the artists would retain control of the recordings and music and they'd get all the profit from the downloads while the industry would get money from the CDs, with royalties still going back to the artists.