i own many cds but have stopped buying them, the michael pinnela solo album was the last cd I bought, and thats because I knew there was no other way of getting it.
what is the point of buying a cd in this era of mp3 players when you are just going to rip all of the tracks to your mp3 player anyway? I now have around 300 cds collecting dust because of this. And most of the money goes to the cock sucking record company. And if a cd doesnt sell well, the record company doesnt give a band the support to tour, and actually make money by the fans who are out there but not showing their faces.
Downloading exposes a lot more people to a bands music than probably would otherwise listen. I know I have downloaded tons of albums I probably wouldn't have otherwise bothered with, and became a fan.
More people just need to get their asses to concerts and buy merchandise.
One step I think bands should start working on is making a broader range of merchandise, and making it more reasonablly priced. For instance, at a near sold out opeth show a few months ago, all of their shirts were black with only a few evil designs to choose from, and costed $35 dollars. This alienates a lot of people because not everyone wants to pay that kind of money for a cotton shirt, especially a black one that 5000 other people will have. If bands had more selection in their merch to fit everyones style, with better prices, I am sure almost everyone who went to their concert would by the merch. And there needs to just be more promotion spent on adveratising concerts. Everytime a good metal band comes around here, a lot of people miss out that would go simply because they dont hear about it unless they check the bands site all the time.
There are plenty of unsigned musicians or signed but not too popular, that make no/little money producing AWESOME music, so I dont think if career musicians stop existing, so will good music.
