That's still a very good idea. A group first called Fairtunes (now known as Musiclink) has been refining that that for four years that I know of. Don't know how it works for the musicians, really -- they have to register in some way and fairtunes acts as the clearing house.

http://www.fairtunes.com/

I am more than happy to pay for CDs. I don't see why this is such a big deal to people. Pay for what you own - it's a simple concept. Anyone who claims they don't buy music because the artists don't see much of the money anyway is an idiot and a thief in my book. (Yes, I actually knew a guy who used this as his defense.)

I own about 1400 (yes, that's fourteen-hundred) CDs. I paid for all of them, or was given them as gifts. I will download something to give it a try. If I don't like it, I get rid of it. I have no problem with that. But I don't think it's fair of anyone to fill up their collection with music they didn't pay for. A song here and there is fine. I think everyone knows albums that have one or two songs you enjoy and 10 others you can't stand. I don't see anything wrong with that - it's what people did with tape-trading when I was younger anyway.

The problem with your idea is that it may work for now - providing you can actually get everyone to do it. But by circumventing the rest of the people in the process you actually discourage musicians from getting their work out there. Why? Because they will be forced to somehow get their name out there, on the internet, along with the other 5 billion bands doing the same thing. The record companies, while admittedly evil, do something good in general: weed out the chaff. Now, don't take that as me saying that everything record companies put out is good. But there's an awful lot of really bad music out there, and without some form of filtration the bad stuff will overtake the good stuff, and no one will care about music at all eventually. No, what really needs to happen is at the record label level. They need to see that what the people want is good music. Until people stop responding to Britney Spears-alikes, that won't happen. If people will stop responding to the hype and glitz crafted around these stars, the record companies would be forced to help fund truly artistic musicians. Given the attitude today, it doesn't seem likely to happen. But stealing the music in the form of mp3s (because stealing is what the RIAA sees it as) is not going to solve any problems, regardless of whether you send money to the artist directly or not.

Regime change in the music industry is the only answer! :-)

I would love to pay the artists directly, I just need to find some directory of their PayPal addresses. I don't buy many CD's from major record labels any longer, it always makes me a bit queazy.