On Wed, 19 Feb 2003 DanAbnrml9@aol.com wrote:

> If I like it, I always buy it.. no question. Therefore, no, I'm not stealing
> the music... this is the way in which I HEAR the music. And if I like it, I
> buy it. Just like radio.

Same here. I sample mp3s based on recommendations, and if I like what I
hear, I go out and buy the product. This is exactly what I was referring
to when I said that the onus is now almost entirely on the *consumer* to
find new ways to discover music beyond the banality that now passes for
top 40. If it weren't for mp3s, I'd be completely unable to hear any music
I'd consider buying.

(Actually, if you needed further evidence of the decline and fall of radio
as a means of driving sales, there's one other new and surprising place
to find new music: TV ads and shows. Anyone else noticed this?)

If anything, since I've had access to mp3s, I've been buying MORE cds, not
fewer, because I have a chance to sample music that's closer to my tastes
than what I'm hearing in the mainstream media.

> even really afford to buy CDs at all anymore... I'm mostly selling them off),
> and that's a different story.

Jason, if you're selling I'm buying! I'll bet your cd collection is
prodigious.

A