Piracy will never stop EVER!! Stop wasting so much trying to stop that and put that into developing better products that will sell more.

in the 70's and 80's everyone recorded their records and cassettes and gave them to friends.

90's everyone burned all their cd's and gave them to their friends

20's-2010's everyone is ripping their music and giving them to friends. Internet makes it easier, but it's been going on since music began and it will never stop. It would be nearly impossible. megaupload gets shut down, and 100 more smaller sharing sites popped out of the woodwork.

I'm not saying the record companies should throw their hands in the air and give up trying to shut these down, but if half the time was spent developing better artists or putting out quality stuff, I think a lot more money is there to be had for everyone involved.

What people don't realize is 10,000 downloads does not mean 10,000 lost sales. I downloaded a christina aguilera album once just to hear what she sounded like other than the regular radio tracks, but it's an album I never would have bought. There's also times I've downloaded something I pre-ordered just to hear it early. So they got credit for that sale.

Bottom line is, they have to focus on a better overall product that consumers will want.