I don't understand why some musicians/bands get so passionately irritated by it. I mean, isn't the spread of their music far more important than the money they recieve for their music?
The VAST majority of people that record and release music do it for 2 reasons:
1) they like doing it
2) they like making money doing it
There are plenty of other reasons but those two have to be the top two. Egos and "hey look at me" are probably a very close #3. The reason artists get upset by it can vary from one group or artist to the next. If Metallica goes into the studio and makes an album, they can afford to do so without really worrying about not making money on album sales (even though they are still popular enough to make some decent money on it, or at least not a loss). But with a new album comes touring, so they make huge bank doing that.
But then there is a band like say, the Doobie Brothers. Sure they've been around for about 40 years. But they don't have the bankroll that a huge band has. The cost vs payoff for them to make a new album and even a subsequent tour doesn't compare to what a bigtime band/artist
The sad thing is, it's the BIGGER bands that make the most noise about the illegal downloading. Smaller bands, local bands, etc seem to have a better understanding that getting their name, their faces and their music out into the public, even at a bit of a financial loss could be their ticket to actually making some real money and or some real fame. One of those "paying their dues" sort of thing.
*shrug*
