Jane Galt holds forth on the music industry and downloading:
Just to get one misconception out of the way, getting rid of the record labels does not mean that their market power will accrue to the artists, my children. There are a lot of players in the music industry, and pretty much all of them have more power than the artists. Currently, the record labels step on the venue owners, the equipment suppliers, the DJ's, and what have you. If the record companies get out of the way, it is those people -- the people sitting on the valuable and scarce capital goods -- who will reap the market power, not the artists. There are a lot more people who want the world to listen to them sing than there are, for example, live music venues. Artists have always starved, and will continue to do so, the wishful musings of artistic types notwithstanding.
Read ...she makes a very good argument against unauthorized music downloads.