Why do people still pay for music

If you go and have a look online many new artists do give away their music for free as they're picking up publicity, it gets them better coverage and a lot only actually care about having their music heard. Some have even gone on public record as saying they encourage P2P sites.

Out of interest, what would happen to the music industry if everyone was able to consume it for free?

But you also have to factor in that the industry spends more money if it charges a lower cost since it needs to make more CDs. As you go down from £10 more and more people will decide to stop pirating and buy CDs, whereas at £10 they get the whole market who will buy only CDs, so it just makes more sense for them to all stick at the high price

Wow, and now we're trying to justify theft from artists trying to establish themselves.

I'm sure that if the artists were happy to give their art away for free ... they would give it away for free.

Obviously there is absolutely no issue downloading free music from artists that are offering it for free.

Downloading free music from artists who are not offering if for free, even if you have decided that you are doing them a favour, is theft. Albeit one that many have decided isn't a "real" crime.

I'm not trying to be a moralist here, I would just rather people be honest and not offer some half-baked rationalisation for their acts.

The amount of money they would still make off of advertising and sponsorship........... probably nothing.

Do you pay for your music then?

Of course. Given my posts I find that a very strange question.

I don't really care about the pirating, I'm just saying why pirating could help the music industry, and you were trying to be a moralist about it.

"Probably" is an easy statement to make, however I would like to see some economic proof before discounting it as inherently biased.

Would the money not be better off spent on paying bills or to a charity, to name two examples?

How am I supposed to give you economic proof. I don't study this, I haven't researched an even if I was an expert on this specific matter, until this actually happens it's all guess work.

I mean what are you expecting from a thread of personal opinions? No one here is going to be able to give you anything other than an opinion.

Non sequitur?

Just highlighting one example of 'victimless crime' crap.

I'm surprised more artists to advocate pirating if it is a "good thing" for the music industry.

You were the one that stated "probably". Now, if you'd said "I really haven't got much a clue, but perhaps ..." then I would have cut you a bit of slack.

To quote OP:

"If you think about that, someone may have a 2000 song library on their phone so would have "wasted" around £2000 that could have been used for something better like paying their bills.

I would like to know who and why you pay for your music if you do so"

That £2000 would be better spent elsewhere, no?

"I would give you some slack"

****ing kiss my arse.