> Several people have said things like:
>
> "...many people I know use Napster to sample
> music before they buy that artist's CD.
> Sometimes, someone finds an artist's song that
> they enjoy from Napster and end up buying a CD
> that they would not have bought before."
>
> That argument is idiotic*.
>
> If you have Napster, you have internet access.
> If you have internet access, you have the
> ability to visit cdnow.com. If you can visit
> cdnow.com, you can listen to 30 second bits of
> about half the songs on almost every album. If
> you can sample the music, you can decide if you
> want to get the album.

Not to mention that there has been at least one study (there may have been more, but perhaps not; it's kind of a new issue) that showed that, while Napster users at first went out and bought CD's based off what they heard from Napster, this practice declined until eventually the test subjects stopped buying CD's and just used Napster for all their illegal listening pleasure.

-eric sleator
Sun 11 Mar A.D. 2001