> Joe Schmoe walks into a music store and sees the same song on both
> Artist-A and Artist-B's CD.  He's never heard of Artist-B but he hears
> about Artist-A all the time.  He'll spend his money on Artist-A.

So does this really hurt artist B? It's not like he's losing sales...if no
one heard of him anyway. Would he break if artist A wasn't around?


> And see, I think people are much more likely to hear a song now in a car
> commercial and then hunt down the artist.  Hell, the car websites
> recognize this enough that they even make areas specifically about the
> music in their commercials.  (see Moby, the Da-Da-Da band, etc)

In that case, people with that kind of determination won't settle for artist
A. They heard artist B, they look up artist B and they buy artist B. And I
don't disagree that exposure on a commercial can lead to (ahem) commercial
success...but we both know the majority of listeners aren't that diligent.
Now if the _record label_ invested in the momentum...


> I think when an artist covers a song thats STILL out and considered a
> "new" song, they end up hurting the band they're covering.

Agree to disagree...but I see your points.

b