[chrislgrigg]

I disagree with your idea of the gist of this article. What I took from it was that illegal music downloaders should not be disregarded and we can glean important metrics that artists should consider. This is completely at odds with the opinion commonly held by the music industry. Despite the fact that the article was essentially an advertorial for that product, it's an important example of how we can approach piracy and use it to our advantage.

On the other hand, this attitude is a privilege afforded exclusively to bands with the resources to travel the world, capitalizing on international interest. For an indie band on a small label, record sales are all that matter if they hope to not get dropped.

A band like Iron Maiden has the luxury of not caring as much about recording because they have visibility, they have leverage, they have an existing market, and they already profited directly from "music as a product." Smaller bands, however, only matter when they are doing new things -- releasing albums, specifically -- and the budget for that is the direct result of sales if it is coming from a label. Music as a Service only works when demand is massive. Since most bands are working primarily DIY and taking whatever little budgets they can get, it is not a reasonable model for anyone other than those with existing resources.