To Truman..

your story is sad..but no sadder than the stories of miillions of other americans victimized by technology or down-sizing or whatever..
middle-aged unhealthy is a drag....

it's what I am..so I know...
To say that your friends problems are due to file sharing is, in my opinion, just not so.
Down loading of "classic" rock (which it sounds like your acquaintance is a purveyor of) is not big business on the net.

The royalty drop off might just mean folks have bought all of his records they care to have.
Sadly..every well has a bottom.

Reel to reel tape recorders were gonna ruin record sales...they didn't
Hell..playing music on the radio was gonna stop people from going out to see live music...didn't happen
Recordable 8 tracks were gonna kill record sales..didn't happen..
Cassette recording was gonna destroy sales...didn't happen
Recordable CDs..you name it..one after another..just like TV was gonna destroy the movie industry..Jeez this is old [naughty word removed] !!

People have slowed down buying records cause music is [naughty word removed] right now ! Period!!!

Artists are interested in making money not making music..so of course the music suffers.
It's all image not musical content.
It's alot of bullshit.
Bullshit sells for a while but then all of a sudden mfols wake up and say "hey...this is bullshit, and I got enough"

Instead of all this intellectual jerking off about whats moral and whats not we should be making music.
If our music isn't selling, it's our fault.
We're too damn greedy to work hard..that's what musicians and entertainers used to do

Quit whining a pretending you understand economics..

Go write something or practice your instrument..

If you're whining about file sharing while you're shopping at places like WalMart then you ARE the problem.
Stores like WalMart have wiped out the lives of thousands of independent merchaants..but, you're OK with that...

Come on..wake up to yourself kids !

Nothing new here...just another wrinkle in the American Dream.
The rich will get richer..they always do.

Madonna and Metallica and all the other music machines will be just fine....\

And yes..you can download any of my crap for free...
I think Janis Ian has got it right

Bob