Every once in a while marijuana...advil... I am taking some claritin these days for allergies...
My logic is that with the inception of music being passed around on the internet, the world realized that it was going to be easier to download than to go to the store. People can get more music, more of the songs they wanted instead of whole albums, and it would be cheaper.
This was going to happen as cheaply as possible (in terms of both opportunity cost of putting in the effort and in dollars) regardless of who or what was doing this, the internet would find a way.
Because of Steve Jobs early on making iTunes a centralized and convenient resource for downloading an incredible amount of music, it has been highly used and direct profits from the sale of these songs have gone back through the system and to the artist.
15 billion songs have been transferred to users sitting on their computers that would have otherwise been obtained in other ways (and in many cases more freely) because Steve Jobs got a head start on the market.
Say what you want about my drugs but I have definitely spent MORE money in the past year on music because of itunes than less. You could drop 100 dollars in a sitting on albums and it would feel like nothing. This was definitely not the case 20 years ago. And any adult or person who wants the internet convenience while still supporting the industry they love can easily do this because of iTunes.
Really the part of the "industry" that has been hit harder is the giant record labels and biggest artists, since iTunes and the internet makes it a lot easier for smaller artists to distribute their music.(in some cases maybe too easy lol) The top has less control these days.
I thought about rehab. But then I said noo no noooo.
