I agree and disagree with this.. so maybe my opinion will be unpopular!
I think the music industry model is now outdated and behind the times. Personally, I don't own a CD player anymore. I don't buy CD's either, all my music is digital. My whole collection is now on my home network. I don't host any of this stuff online, and I've obtained all albums legally.
I'll admit I freely download live recordings and odd bits that the artist has not released commercially, fan recordings etc or rare tracks that you just can't get anywhere.
I'm also a Spotify subscriber and this gets used everywhere.. at home, at work. I have a USB headunit in my car and my whole library fits on one (rather large) memory stick.
I also go to a lot of live shows, on the local scene and the mainstream. Now.. here comes the interesting part!
I'm happy to pay up to about £10 to see a really good local band, most will never charge more than £5 and for that you can normally catch three bands and hear something that challenges you. Its great to support the scene, and you can tell the guys really appreciate it. I'll decide if I want to go and see a particular band after checking out myspace or something where you can hear their songs FOR FREE.
I begrudge paying £30 a ticket for a live show now.. factor in travel costs and a bit of spending money and I'm looking at the best part of £100 for a night out. Only to then be told if I take a picture I'll be ejected, no video, no audio.
Although.. I quite happily spent out on 5 tickets to see Joe next year at just over £30 each and can't bloody wait.
Why?
Because Joe has cracked it... he works hard for his fans. We all feel like a little bit of Joe belongs to each and every one of us, he drops in here, runs competitions and generally gives a lot back. He puts everything into his live shows and his music and seems very humbled to be doing what he's doing. As a result I've bought EVERYTHING he's ever released and feel like I've gotten a good deal out of it. There are quite a few other artists I feel this way about and some of them are big time, others arn't!
Why on earth should I fork over my hard earned cash on some band who are just after my money. They do the bare minimum and are basically a cash cow for the greedy record labels who are digging their heels in and clinging to the heady days when they controlled everything.
The industry and some artists need to wake up, we arn't all thieves but we are all FED UP with being mugged off.