Your analogy of cheap art prints is a good one.
If I really like music, I buy it. Of course, that hasn't happened in a few years. I HAVE, however, bought several concerts on DVD.
I don't consider what's happening a shame however, mainly because I don't know how it will play out yet. It'll be interesting to watch, though.
I have pri
The music industry needs to price its product according to quality of the "print" and cost of production. I can imagine a system in which relatively low quality MP3s are available for a reasonable subscription fee, without regard to qualtity. These would be promos, pretty much like AM radio used to be. Any song or any band that attracted enough attention would justify release of quality CDs or audio DVDs, not to mentioned tours.
Right now the music industry loses money on 90 percent of everything, due to production and promotion costs. This is silly. Songs can be recorded sampled on the internet at low cost, and the market can decide which deserve expensive promotion. If the CD package includes some worthwhile extras, people will pay for them. I'm no expert at marketing, but I do know what I'm willing to pay for.