I pay the artists I enjoy for their work happily and freely. I just don’t buy the 92% of music that’s utter garbage. And unfortunatly quite a few of the big record labels specalize heavily in that 92%. I will say I did quite a bit of music downloading in my teens but that I now own pretty much every album I’ve ever downloaded. Not to mention the fact that for 15 dollars a month my zune pass gives me almost all of the music I could want.
If artists whine about not making sales I’d tell them to take a hard look at what they put out and that we’re not obligated to buy their garbage just because some record label puts them on TV.
Imagine a rural vegetable stand. The kind where they leave a basket out for payment, and trust the good will of people to pay for what they take. Downloaders are basically driving up to the vegetable stand, loading up on tomatoes, and stiffing the farmer. It's not right.