Soot and Stars
I AM SOOT!
Erm... a hell of a lot of people download stuff and then buy the CD. That's not an excuse by any means. This is something done by people who prefer CDs but want to know whether something is worth buying first.
That being said, I don't download music illegally. I buy legal stuff, simply because it's exponentially more convenient. But in cases where something isn't available legally, I'll get it with whatever necessary means.
I have nothing against downloading for sampling an album. I do it myself for a preview but I'm more against the attitude of "I always only like a one/a couple song (usually after a shallow listen if any) so why buy albums" or the worst "Why buy it when you can get it for free". I hate the greedy record company excuse as well but to break it down for people really goes into semantics because proving whether record sales help an artist financially in the long run is about equal to the Christian vs. Atheist arguing over whether God/Jesus really exist. Nobody has all the information 100% so any argument just goes around and around in a retarded circle!