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Music piracy has been mainstream since cassette tapes became popular.
You could argue that tape and CDR piracy was just as big then as P2P MP3 piracy is today. I think the "listen and delete" P2P downloads have inflated the numbers today, whereas 10-25 years ago people copied only what they knew they wanted since there was a physical cost involved.
Back then it probably hurt music more than it does now because everything revolved around album sales. Whereas today you see much bigger tours, merchandise in stores, TV stuff, etc... The odd man out here in 2008 seems to be the record label industry. Fans are shifting album sales profits into these other areas, and the record labels do not get a cut of that. That's why they are causing such a P2P stink.
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