My own feeling (backed by no solid evidence except my own buying habits and that of my friends) is that the "file-sharing effect" is encouraging people to look at a wider range of artists, and perhaps even encouraging sales by allowing people to "listen before you buy". (And the reverse is true as well: "gee, this sounds like crap, I don't want it.")

I buy a lot of CDs and music--but it's not mainstream stuff, and a much larger percentage of my purchases are indeed from "garage band" labels and independents than before. (In my most recent buying spree I'd say about 60% of the CDs I bought were from independents.) I also routinely end up buying stuff I simply can't find in the US.

None of my friends (even in the 18-25 group) consider downloading low-quality mp3s to be a real substitute for owning a CD. Maybe they're just special and unique, I don't know.

I also should point out that I don't swap music online, and I have purchased CDs for every piece of music I listen to. It's just far easier than it used to be to find these little one-off bands and foreign artists, thanks to the 'net--and since I can usually listen to samples of the music online, it's far more likely I'll buy it.

I wholeheartedly agree that the quality of the "popular artists" (the ones being shoved down everyone's throats) has gone way downhill in recent years, and that's also a contributing factor.

I won't say that the 'net hasn't had its negative effects. But it's far more complex than "everyone just downloads it for free, wah".

Finally, I think the unwillingness to fill out "a 30-second profile" is simply the sheer number of them. Just how many times do I have to give my birthday, place of residence, and how many kids I don't have before I'm permitted to say "enough is enough!"

Sad to say, I've reached the point where I almost always assume it's crap -- music, books, software -- unless I've seen evidence otherwise.

But that may just be my age talking: "Life is too short (and getting shorter every day) to waste it reading/listening to crap."

True, but what I find amazing is that some of the best (and popular) music today is very reminiscent of music from 25 or 30 years ago.

I own no albums by an artist with a single currently in the top 30...

Yeah, but if you take it out to the top 40, there's one artist some of whose music I own: Carlos Santana, which just goes to prove your point.

Yep. A lot of it is just that the stuff we like usually harkens back to what we liked in our mid-20s.

(bad language warning below)

For many years the music we heard in restaurants, stores and other public places were top 40 hits from 15ish+ years before. The Beatles were all the rage in the 80's and now the 80's music is played today. That made many songs part of our collective musical heritage even if you were not in high school when it was popular.

But how on earth are people going to sit in a sandwich shop 15 years from now and listen to "I want to Fuck your mother!"

Most parents I know do not let their kids buy pop music today. Certainly that hurts business.

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, most record labels in any genre, and the radio stations on which they depend, are subsidiaries of the same three or four major media conglomerates, and this has a tendency to homogenize the product. Regardless of genre, the target demographic is the same, so the product starts to all look and sound alike -- or at least remarkably similar. (For example, many top 10 country songs would probably do well in the pop market, and vice versa. They are no longer recognizably "country" except to the extent that the artists and fan base identify themselves as such.)

The artist and songwriter response in the industry has been to turn to independent labels and self-production, with varying degrees of success. On the one hand, it is extremely difficult to promote yourself when you're up against big label marketing and touring budgets. On the other hand, the Internet makes it possible to reach larger numbers of people, and once an artist establishes a loyal local fan base, regional radio stations are more likely to pick up their work, which can start the ball rolling.

The bottom line is that Henley is right about the industry and wrong about the solution. I think the answer will come in greater numbers of artists and songwriters operating independently, and the demise of big-name labels as the arbiter of musical culture.

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