LightninJoe, you make some good points, but lets look at the reason behind why iTunes has caused album sales to go down - new albums SUCK! Gone are the days when an entire album is worth listening to.
Back in the 50's & mid 60's all anyone bought was singles. And the record companies made tons of money. Most of the artists didn't even write their own stuff. Recording companies had teams of writers in small cubicles cranking out "teen" hits.
Then in the late 60's & most of the 70's, you had some amazing artists that were able to write an entire record for themselves.(most often with a theme or story to tell) And, they could play their own instruments! The record companies made even MORE money. And got greedy.
Then along came the 80's & MTV. Now the focus shifted to the visual appeal of the artist and away from their musical talent. Again, singles came back in the form of a cassette single. Not too many "great" albums that came out of the 80's. And the greed was huge. Remember Milli Vanili? The record company had these songs, but said you are too ugly to perform them. We are going to have these guys over here "sing" them because it will sell better.
90's - Grunge and everything anti-80's, anti-excess became popular. The singer/songwriter was back, and some good ALBUMS were produced. But still, the record companies were cranking out cookie cutter performers. The biggest song for all of the 90's? Yep - Hit Me Baby One More Time.
2000's - I have absolutely no idea what is going on now, so I won't even comment.
The point being - I have countless CD's that I paid $15 to $20 for, just for one song, and the rest SUCK.
Frankly, I love the iTune model. I am able to listen to a snippet and if I like it, download the single song for a dollar. I think to survive, CD stores will have to take on this model. You go in with either your MP3 player/iPod OR a flash card, and only buy the songs you want at a self serve pod.
Until artists and the RIAA stop producing "filler", the general public will keep trying to share/steal single songs.
[Sorry for spelling and grammar]
