“but with digital, who buys music anymore? “
Same here, I have all that I need in this life. As to the Labels, my beef with them was paying $5 for a 25 cent cassette, only to have to replace it 5 times because it was a piece of crap. I could get the $5 part, once, but not multiple times.
So when Napster came, and the Russian site, I was set for life...and got my revenge.
“So when Napster came...”
I still have many tracks from Napster, and sometimes I find that I’ve got a version that isn’t available anywhere else. I believe to this day that somebody dumped a radio station’s complete digital library onto Napster, in the last few months of the site’s life.
Artists deserve to be compensated, certainly. Yet, we live in a time where, an artist can do one performance and receive lifetime royalties for it. For centuries, performers were paid to perform - but in today’s world, a little effort can get you a lifetime income stream. I’m not sure if that’s an improvement.