hundreds of dollars from me personally over the last 14 years
Nothing personal, but the only thing this anecdote underlines is the fact that you'd have been a marginal consumer in the first place.
As another (counter?) anecdote: I've spent hundreds of dollars every year for the past 14 years (or so) and like yourself, I'm an avid downloader of music.
Not to parrot popular sentiment, but I believe the music industry is slowly strangling itself with the protectivist measures it continues to take. I don't listen to loads of top "" music but I think as more and more people get 'geeky' the alternatives, which focus almost 100% on the consumer side of the experience, become more and more acceptable.
They could drop margins, shift focus to the consumer, and see what happens. Or they could not, maintain some heavy-handed control...and see what happens.
Oddly, one of the best genres to result from the post-consumer digital pop-music age is bootleg remixes. Which introduces me to consumer oriented music I might no have otherwise listened to. And of course violates copyright.
Look, we have no problems buying your crap, but when its easier to pirate it and you get a better product? Why not download it?
That's the craziest part of this 'war'. I'd love to pay a fair price and not get jerked around for media, but that's just not a product they've managed to come up with yet, so until then it's plan B.
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Memory fault - where am I?