[toxik]

Ulrich took it personally, thinking it was somebody stealing from him. I'm convinced Metallica would have faded to irrelevance far earlier if people hadn't downloaded their music.

A lot of musicians still think this way, "I should be able to make a living from my craft and thus piracy is theft." But that's a misunderstanding, I believe -- people would still pay money for music, just like they pay money to creators on YouTube and the likes even if most of the content is freely available.

[scns]

Studies showed that people who download more, spend more money on music than those who don't.

[drdec]

It strikes me as totally reasonable and predictable that the people who spend the most money on music would be the people who download the most music.

[sincerely]

>I'm convinced Metallica would have faded to irrelevance far earlier if people hadn't downloaded their music.

No offense but this is wishful thinking, they're one of the best selling bands of all time.