The era of buying music on *traditional media* to a large degree is ending/over. BUT, people still *buy* music, even if it's a digital download. I prefer to buy CDs still and personally dislike the whole digital downloading craze. It's a convenience and 'hot-fresh-and-now' focus versus quality and having a visceral experience waiting for something new. People don't get excited over new releases anymore because they think they can just steal it (er, download illegally) soon enough. If people stopped buying music altogether, we musicians would pretty much be out of 'jobs' as it were. I have an iPod and use iTunes, yes. BUT, I prefer to grab the actual disc any day over downloading it if given a choice. Also, if the future is just in live music, then live music better start paying more. I'd love to be able to make all my music income with live gigs... I'd be in heaven! Regardless of what you do or how you do it, ya gotta pay the bills. All the folks out there who still illegally download with no remorse and have no desire to pay for what took hours, days, months, etc. to produce are the ones who hurt everyone. I have a feeling there are a lot of younger bassists on these boards who don't really remember the days before Napster changed everything.
