Is downloading music really ripping off the artists?

i think to a small extent it is. u know some years before there used to be a sale of about 500,000 copies of a hit artist in the first week. now its hardly 300,000.

Well, honestly have we seen any of these RICH artists go hungry because of downloading. I can see their point but come on, are they ever going to say "I'm afraid I have to give up my million dollar lifestyle because Jim down the street burned a song off of his buddy"? Probably not.

The only people getting "ripped off" are the record companies. The artists only makes a record/CD to be released. The thing is, the artists don't get much, if anything, from record sales. They get their money from performing, especially if they can fill up a stadium or some other concert hall, or if they have to have another show the next day because the day of the performance got sold out. The only thing that might happen is that if people download it or get it from a friend for free, it can cost an artist a gold or platinum record.

I do not think it is ripping off the stars themselves no. I also understand downloading the music. I do it and I don't care. Usually bands put out one good song and the rest are crap so I don't want to waste space in my cd cabinet nor do I wish to spend all that money for one song.... Also it is nice to simply delete stuff you are tired of or decided you don't like.... you lose nothing this way. I have also heard it argued that people in certain countries can not afford to buy cds so they download music on their community computers because they still want he luxery of being able to hear music.