Re:Maybe... Illegal where? (Score 1)

The Long Tail theory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tail applies to music as well. Applying it to the distribution of artist popularity, we see that the sum of popularity of the numerous little-known artists (the tail) exeeds the sum for the few well-known artists (the head). The nature of the music label industry makes only "the head" profitable and therefore visible. With the file-sharing technologies of today, "the tail" has a unique chance of reaching massive audiences.

Also, only the absolute best-selling artists make more money on record sales than performances. This kind of explains Princes reaction. This is also why the record labels are doomed; file-sharing is eating from their profit source, where as lesser-known independent artists gain from file-sharing. In other words, record sales is to be viewed merely as PR nowadays.

Additionally, consumers willingness to pay for records has decreased while it has increased for live-performances. As a side note, this arguably reflects our modern world. Music is available anywhere, anytime, for free; consumers value music less. What remains is "real experiences", that can not be experienced anywhere, anytime, infinitely many times, exactly the same next time... each event is unique, in the performance itself, in the audience-composition etc. I think the keyword here is _unique_, i.e. price worthy.