[steve-b]

If the national music industry falls apart then people will be exposed to less music

Nonsense. First, most of what one is exposed to via the national industry is more accurately described as "wailing" than as "music". Second, the internet allows the typical local producer to reach anyone in the world rather than merely the people who happen to wander into earshot.

[discostu]

Not nonsense. You not liking the music being played on radios today is a non sequitor. The internet isn't allowing anything. You don't reach out from the internet, you make something available for other people to reach into. How will you be exposed to a new artist on the internet if you don't go to their website? How will you know to go to their website without hearing of them first? There's the catch 22.

[rattrap]

your opinion of what is wailing and what is music is valueless, the percieved quality of what is being broadcast, played, marketed or downloaded has nothing to do with the issue of whether it is legal or not.