For years and years and years the record companies have been sticking it to the customer with $15-20 prices for compact disks. Only a small portion of these profits (pennies on the dollar) ever made it back to the musicians of course - it is a total scam, a monopoly run by the recording industry because it is the only game in town. If you wanted to make or buy music, all roads led to and through the record companies. But now, for the first time, the tables have been turned and the audience has gotten to the technology first - before the recording industry. Music is now essentially free over the Internet with peer-to-peer technologies. This is a good development. Panicked at losing their complete control over distribution and consequently their exorbitant profits, the recording industry is predicting the end of society as we know it. Don't believe them!
Until the beginning of the 21st century music was free, and that is the way it should be again now. Information - whether software or music or ideas and opinions - should flow freely and openly over the Internet. Artists creating and sharing with other people is the essence of human progress. In fact, the Internet was designed precisely to facilitate this spread of information without control by governments or other meddling authorities. It empowers the individuals to seek out and find what they need. And now the recording industries and software giants want governments to stop it. Well, it is too late. The genie is out of the bottle, so to speak.
Musicians need to look at the long-term. The Internet allows musicians to bypass record companies and to deliver their art straight to their fans without being fleeced by greedy record companies. They can cut out the middle men and maintain control over their product. Back in the 1970's and 1980's latter day Jeremiahs complained that the new VHS and audio tapes would destroy the music and movie industries through piracy. In fact, the opposite occurred and even with piracy those industries are bigger and more profitable than ever. The same will happen with file swapping. With the rise of Napster and mass file sharing record stores report only minimal sales losses, and only in areas near college campuses; but with more music spread to different persons and being exposed to even larger audiences, musicians will only have greater opportunity to have their music heard, appreciated, and eventually compensated for at even higher levels than before - the same as happened with VHS and audio tapes.
Peer-to-peer technology is not going away. Nobody is going to shut down the Internet. The music revolution is on! To work against it is futile, like swimming upstream in a strong current. And this revolution in music (indeed the information revolution!) is just beginning. Industries and artists are going to have to adapt and develop new business models that work with the new technology. The technology is here! The future is now!
Questions to keep in mind: What bands are in favor of file sharing? What do they say? What is their point of view?