Straw man argument

["Joseph J. Esposito" <espositoj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, not really. It's not just the artists who make money from bestselling
CDs. The bulk (in some cases, all) the profit of recording companies comes
from a small number of bestsellers. The profit on those titles goes to
subsidize the rest of the list. It's the same in trade books: One
bestseller by Hillary Clinton or J.K. Rowling underwrites a huge amount of
the overhead for the entire publishing program. The money to explore and
develop new artists essentially is a subsidy from the established major
artists. The current system thus tends to redistribute income from the
bestsellers to the smaller titles. This is the precise opposite of the
popular perception, but the popular perception is wrong.

At risk in file-sharing is the research and development money for new
artists. That's the real price. Prince and Madonna (and Courtney Love) can
thumb their noses at record labels, but the unknown artists have a tougher
time. Clearly many people now believe that that is a price they are willing
to pay.

Joe Esposito