Bose

[shen]

Yeh, I actually fancy listening to music for years to come. It's people like you that will eventually bring the music industry down

Hah, if anything I think free download has just brought more power to the artist and weakens the record labels. The fact that musicians can now get exposure all over the world, is likely to give them a broader fan base. If it hadn't been for "free" downloads, I'd never have bought 4/5 of my current cd collection, and neither would I have gone to any concerts in the past 10 years. Maybe some people aren't as 'morally correct' as me, but I believe the majority will buy products from a given artist if they like it. Unless we're talking big names (Justin Timberlake, U2, Madonna etc., who will always sell huge amounts of albums, free downloads or no) I can actually only see that music sharing benefits the smaller unknown bands.

[Bellend Sebastian]

I'm with Tommy on this one, I'm afraid. If no one ever pays for any of it, the music will dry up in the end. Artists need to pay the bills, after all.

The good news though is that all the current crop of acts that I can't bloody stand that are popular with the 'the kids' won't be around for long as the kids won't pay for what they produce. Hopefully this means that the risk of second albums from Foals and The Enemy is much reduced.

You can't do much about the daft old sods that still buy Oasis CDs and the like, but you can't have it all

[James.]

Hah, if anything I think free download has just brought more power to the artist and weakens the record labels. The fact that musicians can now get exposure all over the world, is likely to give them a broader fan base. If it hadn't been for "free" downloads, I'd never have bought 4/5 of my current cd collection, and neither would I have gone to any concerts in the past 10 years. Maybe some people aren't as 'morally correct' as me, but I believe the majority will buy products from a given artist if they like it. Unless we're talking big names (Justin Timberlake, U2, Madonna etc., who will always sell huge amounts of albums, free downloads or no) I can actually only see that music sharing benefits the smaller unknown bands.

I agree with all that.

Free downloads and similar initiatives/changes should result in a structural shift within the music industry taking the control and money from the label bosses and empowering the artist.