When I was working for Dell is when I first heard of the Digital Millennium act and all the things that it implied and thanks to our worst president ever the corporations went out of control. Their greed will eventually be their destruction. I stopped buying all entertainment related media in 2001 and have never looked back. Never again will I give any corporation involved in any entertainment field my hard earned money. I don't download media off the net either, illegal or legal and I still lead a happy life. Life goes on without corporate entertainment. I have discovered many bands in my city because of my s*** and I support them instead, that way my money stays in my community and not in some corporate billionaire scumbags pocket.

They can imagine what ever they want to try and justify to their stockholders why their profits are dwindling, my truth is I don't need the trash their selling anymore. They forgot the fact music and movies were just entertainment and not a necessity.

"Digital music sales worldwide are still on the increase, but it's still not enough to offset the declining sales of CDs."

See, this really ticks me off... Who thinks that the record industry seems to think that they are *entitled* to dictate their sales figures, and then come up with digital sales, p2p piracy or whatever to justify declining sales?

Why is it that if they do have a decline in sales that something besides *them* has to be the cause of it?

Maybe if they put out a product that was actually *worth* something they'd be *selling* records and *making* their money.

Markets fluctuate. People are fickle. What was hot one year may not be the next. Besides, with all the effeminite boy-bands, sex-goddess divas, and corporate cater-to-the-crowd-sound-the-same-pearl-jam-wannabe bands they crank out every year, what *real* music has appeared lately from the big non-indie labels?

Artists are becoming smarter every day. They know how the record industry basically makes you sell your soul for an album, and take the bulk of the profits while tossing aside an artist after their *fad status* has passed.

Besides, this nonsense is put out by the RIAA, the very people accused and convicted of anti-consumer tactics (price fixing, anyone?) and who are engaged in a terrorism campaign against their customers and their personal fair use rights, for what? Their failing business model? The almighty dollar?

Please... cry me a river, and spare me the "I've got five kids to feed", RIAA. You're just another Benny to shoot your customer in the back when you don't get what you think you're entitled to: your precious sales.

I haven't bought a CD in years, I will never buy one again.

American Idol and similar programs have shown us that the music industry is still as shallow as it has ever been. If you think Payola ever went away, you're living in a fantasy land. Music sales have dropped because most mainstream record company music is manufactured crap. Thank God for the (almost) level playing field that artists and music lovers alike enjoy today on the Internet.

URGE subscription service is the best thing that has happened to me. I learn about new artists I NEVER would have purchased, the quality at 192kbps WMA is pretty good sounding. I still buy CD's for things I'm in love with and want to have forever.

I use that too, it's pretty nice. I'll also buy the CD's that I like. I also use www.pandora.com. You can put in a few artists and I'll come up with a few other songs that are simular to the artist you put in. It's also free.

Then if I think I like the song I'll download it in Urge and listen to it on my MP3 player.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) had said that it hoped the medium would make up for lost sales
This can never happen. They are selling people music by song now. Their customers are no longer forced to buy a 10-15 track CD for the two tracks they actually want.

Digital Music like mp3 and iTunes is 1/10 of the quality of a store puchased CD. But you have to pay the same amount of money?? I will just keep buying CD's. In fact I have been using services like etree.org to get live recording of the bands I like. (etree.org community for sharing the live concert recordings of trade friendly artists)

Also, I really don't have to buy that much music anymore because I have Sirius for 12.95 (or 155.40 a year)

Umm... WTF do you think Sirius broadcasts in? Oh, that's right, a compression scheme much like mp3.

1/10th of the quality is so far off it's laughable. You keep buying cds dude. Feel free.

He's probably never run across a true audiophile. You know the kind that play their old vinyl on a $10,000 gyro-stabilized marble turntable, so they think they can hear that a mosquito farted during the recording of a song.

I heared it's 96kbit/s.

Digital Music Purchases didn't go up because the grandmother next door was punished, it went up because of the free market place. Do the same with movies and televisions shows, and people will purchase the material also.

You also have to given them content and formats we want, don't give customers crap, or they will seek better stuff some place else.

I hate people who "steal" material, wish it wasn't so easy for them to do it, the battle again P2P is sort of pointless they should just make a legal way to get the best quality content.