The sad fact is, whether or not you advocate this, nothing the government, the RIAA or anybody else tries to do will probably change this fact or stem it.

If P2P as it currently exists is brought down, some other method will be made (After all, this didn't just magically appear with the advent of P2P.)
Copy protected pseudo-audio CDs will be cracked within a day.
Lawsuits? Don't expect those to go anywhere.
DRM. Same as copy-protected CDs.
iTunes and other stores may lessen it somewhat, but there will always be people against paying for something, or who simply can't afford to.

Just like copying a tape for a friend in the 80's, or copying a CD, or even taping music off of radio, and software piracy - this is now a part of the world culture - for better or worse. It's going to take something -drastic- to make any amount of change. The 'damage' has already been done.

Piracy has to do with convenience? First you have to figure out the right search term, then you have to figure out who actually has what you're looking for, then you have to try and find something of acceptable quality, and then you have to find a user that will actually let you download from them. Once you've gotten through that and go to play the song, you have to cross your fingers and hope the song wasn't mislabeled, which anyone will tell you is happening more and more. Real convenient

With iTunes, or pretty much any of the similar services, you search or browse for what you're what you want. Consistent results are displayed, and you can then preview a song before purchasing it to make sure it's exactly what you're looking for. Then with a click of a button you quickly get it at the quality you expect. No confusion, no delays, and no lawsuits. Now that is convenient. That also doesn't take into consideration how many new artists and albums you discover just by browsing around.

I've purchased well over 50 songs so far, and many of those are from artists I have never listened to before. I wouldn't have spent any of that 50+ dollars on music had it not been for something like iTunes, and I've talked with a lot of people that say the same thing. Once more and more people give it a fair chance, I think you'll see polls like that having very different results. It's impulse buying at its best, but it's also instant gratification at it's best, and that's what keeps people like me spending quite a lot of time browsing around the online music stores. Now, when my favorite band releases a new album and I know I'll want to hear every song from it, then I'll opt for the physical distribution method. However, that is a rare occurrence. Normally I just want to hear one or two songs from an album or an artist, and that's what the online services are best suited for.

Considering these services are so new, and are just starting to gain awareness from the general public, I'd say the results are pretty good. iTunes has sold somewhere around 15 million songs so far, which is especially impressive considering they limited themselves to 5% of the market until recently. Even more impressive is that the numbers haven't declined as many expected, which is pretty good proof that the whole online music distribution idea is pretty viable. With that said, none of the services are ever going to make much of a profit, which is why I can't see Napster working out too well. Apple has a very profitable iPod to sell along with iTunes, but how many people are going to buy burning software from Roxio because of Napster?

I think it's safe to say not everyone who voted on that poll has actually tried out any of the services yet, so that 34% actually seems pretty good to me. It's bound to go up as more and more people try out the services and find their value. There will always be piracy, but as long as there is a valid reason for someone to spend 99 cents instead, the online music services will continue to grow in popularity. Having Pepsi give away a 100 million iTunes songs is a good start.

iTunes purpose is not to stem piracy.

It's purpose is to add value to iPod ownership and make this high-margin item more likely to be purchased by well-off slightly geeky music-lovers. At this it's wildly successful.

I saw the iPod (a friend had one) and resisted for months, but when he used it to light our way in a dark movie theatre, my will just crumbled. It was beautiful.

Changed my relationship with my 300 cd music collection. Changed the way I listen to radio (more news and talk now, less music). It's also an amazing way to consume audiobooks.

Borrow one for a day from a friend.
You will be assimilated.
Resistance is futile.

I don't think that 42% would buy music anyway. Since they can get it for free, they get it, and if they can't, they don't. Before Napster they dubbed music onto cassettes, before cassettes onto 8-tracks, before 8-tracks they'd listen to the radio. Well, before 8-tracks music didn't cost so damn much, but ah well.

As soon as the iTunes store is available in my country, I'm going to start purchasing audiobooks and comedy albums through it. I'll still download individual songs off file sharing services, adn when I really like something I'll buy the CD. Saves me the pain of watching music channels or listening to (ugh) the radio.

Oh, and I don't think 34% among the Wincustomize demographic is all that bad. Most geeks have used pirated software since they were infants, and music, movies, books, etc. seems just as natural to 'get' for free. If a third of them actually pay for music, then call me surprised.