I remember when CD's first came out and sold for £20 an album where the same vinyl album cost £7.99. CD's were as cheap to produce as vinyl but the media companies were greedy for the extra cash, the band who made the albums still got the same amount of money from a CD sale as they did from a vinyl sale, the media company pocketed the rest.
Media companies whether they be music or film are making greater profits than they ever have done before, people only have so much money to spend and when that is gone the banks will lend you more and then people will spend to the limit of their credit allowance.
There is only so much money to spend, the media companies can't have what we don't have after all our credit is spent.
There is so much more music and film around these days compared to when I was a kid and I have spent entire weeks earnings on records in the past and had to live of beans on toast just to get by.
Downloading media in fact makes money for media companies, it is like try before you buy and we all love to buy stuff,to hold and to have in physical form plus if you look after it you can sell it in the future often at a profit if you choose wisely.
I know people who only buy Bluerays after they have downloaded and watched, after all who wants to buy something that turns out to be crap. You can't take it back to the shop and say "I want a refund" and they ask why and you say "well the film was crap & I didn't like it" they will just laugh you out the shop and you are left with what might as well be a turd and you feel you have been ripped of and there is nothing you can do about it.
I do truely believe in buying media but there is also room for a little piracy first and the Media giants know this.
One of the best things you can do when it comes to music is go see the artists live, after all why do you think U2 gave out their album to everyone for free? well because they wanted you to buy tickets to their gigs.
I guess what I am saying is don't be a total freebie leecher but also don't let the media giants F U in the A and sell you shit at rip off prices , try to find a happy medium.