So, you could figure out how music was being copied illegally on a massive scale before the internet, but you can't figure out how music is being copied illegally on an even more massive scale with the internet?
Music was being copied on a massive scale way before the Internet. Billions of blank cassette tapes were sold during the 1970s. You think consumers were using those to tape themselves talking?
Like I said, much of that blank tape was being used to make legal copies of vinyl recordings people already owned so they could play the tapes in their vehicles.
But any illegal copying in those days was child's play compared to what can be done now. You must be one of the few around who doesn't understand that, and what happened to half the music industries sales revenue over the past ten years.
End of discussion.
People are shifting away from "owning" music to having virtually all recorded music on demand for a fixed fee. YouTube, Spotify, Pandora and many others are offering that service. Soon Apple will be in the game.
The traditional music industry is seeing declining profits because they continue to resist adapting to the new business model.
By the way, this is quickly happening with movies and TV shows as well. DVD sales are in a tailspin as people would rather see their movies streamed on demand. Nobody cares about owning movies on physical media anymore. Same with TV shows. Many people prefer to stream their TV shows on demand on services like Hulu and Netflix, as opposed to tuning into a TV channel at a specific time.
Even if you had an album on tape, the packing of the album (artwork, lyrics, etc.) still made it worthwhile to purchase an album.