Brian...

Please listen...I'm not trying to fight..just give me a second..

Your last post lays all those problems at the feet of file sharing..
My opinion is that many other things are involved..

The general vapidity of music being produced..that's not just my opinion..kids are saying the same thing..
They're not interested in buying an artists cd when they know there are only a couple of decent cuts....
As sales drop across the board everybody cuts back..but it's not just because of file sharing..
CDs cost too much..people feel like they are getting ripped off so they don't buy..

The marketing of artists has changed..

I believe that one of the reasons why people don't buy CDs by artists is that they are not emotionally involved with the artist..
A CD shows more of the artist than just a couple of cuts..the consumers aren't as concerned with the artists identity so they're just looking for the "hit" sound...
Something that might not be in heavy rotation but shows another side of the artist is not something they are going to be interested in.

The small business person, in this case the independent artist, has to look at the market the same way a small business does in a town where a new Walmart is moving in.
You have to provide a service the Walmart does not..otherwise people will shop the walmart for the lower prices and you will be gone.
There's no arguing that, it happensd every day.
The independednt artist has to make the consumer want to know them..
Whether it's thru some marketingh device or simply writing and putting more good songs on a CD than say..Madonna..or whoever.
That's the way we compete..

I repeat what I said before because I honestly believe it..

File sharing is not a big financial problem for the smaller or independent artist.

My record label makes available cuts by all the artists including the Buckinghams a classic rock act with several million sellers to their credit.

None of us on the label feel that the downloading of music has hurt us..we all believe that making ourselves available in this fashion has opened us up to more people.

About a week ago my label got a call from ebay saying that my cd had sold 50 copies intwo day.
I know that doesn't sound like alot but for an independent artist doing no promo it is a nice little bump.
We couldn't figure out what would cause this little bump in sales until yesterday..
I am doing Ron Santos charity walk for Juvenile Diabetes on Oct 9 i9n Chicago.
There's been a bit of publicity about the event and my name has been mentioned.
That appears to be the reason for the little bump in sales.
We did another 70 units so far this week..again..noty a big deal but most independent artists would be happy with this news...
So that's one way to get sales...
There are many others....

I don't think we should get in the habit of blaming file sharing for all that's wrong..
I just don't think it's the problem..

I honestly believe that for every dollar you lose due to file sharing you get another dollar from people who say "Hey..this guy is OK..let's get the whole CD"

That appears to be working for me....

As far as breaking the law...
That's what Americans do !

Change that mind set...let's see you do that...let's see the friggin' pope do that !
I'm not holding my breath !

Bob Young