The big, fat inefficient record companies put out almost nothing but CRAP at exorbitant prices, yet want to blame P2P downloading for their declining fortunes. Yup, that's the problem.

Or to put it slightly differently, no it is not.

One obvious MAJOR sales benefit to the industry from downloaded music is the "try it before you buy it" use. For example, I downloaded a couple of songs from the first Macy Gray album. They rocked so good that I bought factory copies of not just On How Life Is but also the outstanding second album The Id, which didn't have any radio hits (both albums are great). I would never have invested money without hearing more than the one song once or twice on the radio. Those sales DIRECTLY stem from downloading.

Note that this perfect promotional vehicle doesn't cost the industry a dime. The RIAA should have been subsidizing Napster, not shutting it down. Geez, how much money do the labels spend on sleazy payola trying to get people to listen to their records? One tenth of that spent promoting P2P would be much more effective.

Another commercial benefit to consider from downloading is the clearly beneficial effect it has on selling concert tickets. I've gone to at least one or two shows from acts that caught my interest via the net. [For example, David Allen Coe caught my interest via downloading some of his commercially unavailable underground "x-rated" material.] This may not specifically benefit the labels, but artists often make better money from selling you a concert ticket [and maybe some overpriced t-shirts] than from selling a CD. And downloading ain't EVER gonna replace the live concert experience.

You can run up some surveys and studies and such, but I'd bet you dollars to Homer Simpson's donuts that the heaviest downloaders of music are also typically the biggest PURCHASERS of music as well. Hey, Mr. Record Label Exec- we're your bread and butter.

Also note that a pretty big percentage of downloading goes for out of print items, bootlegs, and other things that are difficult or impossible to buy at the store. The seven Beatles fan club only Christmas recordings, for example, have NEVER been commercially released. I certainly didn't take anything out of their pockets by downloading them from Napster users.

It would be foolish to pretend the industry doesn't loose any sales to P2P, but they also have some major benefits that must be taken into account when you add it up. Indeed, here is an academic analysis that says the best reasonable interpretation of the available data suggests that P2P causes at least a modest INCREASE in revenue for the record labels. This report is not even considering the benefits to drawing paying concert audiences for the actual artists.

All this, moreover, is based only on judging the economic impact on music labels. What policies on downloading and file swapping most economically benefit the major labels might not ought to be the top or only consideration. Consider also the classic policies of "fair use" and how long copyrights should reasonably last in the first place, and the costs of copyrights to the rest of society in myriad ways. We'll save that for another day, though.