On potential sales: it's similar to movies...
Some movies you go to the theater, no doubt. Others are a "wait for vide......er....DVD....er....Blu-Ray to come out." And still others are "I'll wait for that on TNT."
Music is the same. Some albums deserve to be bought and owned, hard copy or not. They're just that good. Others are pretty cool because it was free. And still others you'd never know (or cared) of if you hadn't downloaded it. So it's tough to see where "potential" sales were lost, but I can't think that it's too many. Because if it was any good it's be bought anyway.
And for all the bitching and moaning...some GREAT artist have thrived of off this...so it hurts them that this cracking down has begun. It's just a ludicrous situation, fueled by the fact that there just isn't a whole lot of good tunes out these days (IMO) as far as rock n roll goes. Rap and Hip-Hop are king right now...those styles of music don't seem to get a lot of love here, which is fine, but it's interesting due to the advent of mixtapes and such. Stuff that could NEVER be legally released but monster on the internet, and it's doing wonders for some artists. It might could be the solution we need.
