[KneelBeforeZod]

you can sample music on amazon.com on a lot of albums. the more popular, the more likely. some obscure stuff you can't.

but I have bought a couple albums after getting mp3s.

[FLAMING DEATH]

Many artists have found that MP3's generate interest for their music.

For example, the band Wilco could not get anyone to distribute their album, "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" (a great piece of work, by the way), so they decided to buy the master tapes and post them for free on their website.

When record company executives realized how many thousands of downloads they were getting, they promptly offered to distribute the Wilco album on CD.

The whole copyright infringement thing is just a knee jerk reaction to a bunch of ensconced, bloated Industry thugs who realize that, because of the Internet, their time has come.