You place text in quotes in reply to me giving the impression to a casual reader that I said them, when I didn’t.
At no point did I mention good old days, wanting to go back anywhere, or theft... and at several points I mention the positives of where we are and where we could go, including technological advancement.
I am not aware that anything I mentioned was factually incorrect.
My post was not about wanting to live in a neverland of fluffy kittens, holding back a tide of change. It was about the cost of change and the explanation of key influences on that change and the direction they pushed it. Some of those costs were entirely unnecessary and only linked to the issue by the business needs of a few online companies. Like it or not the industry lost a lot of talented people and it was largely avoidable.
Nobody stole anything? Nobody accused anybody of stealing, though in many spheres piracy might be considered theft to take someone’s livelihood, but most countries left copyright infringement as a civil matter, there was no criminal aspect to it. Of course there are possible criminal elements out with copyright law. That said, any jurisdiction could make arts infringements into criminal acts very easily.
That said, pirates took and distributed what they wanted, when they wanted it, and they did not care about the consequences. The misinformation war legitimised their actions, and encouraged masses to do the same and feel no guilt for doing so.
Saying all that doesn’t suggest going back anywhere. There was a very personal cost to hard working musicians that hoped to recover their costs using the primary method of making money from music at the time. In the case of on ex-member of staff who financed an album release to a pro standard, he had invested in professional session players, Engineers, studios, producers, marketers, artists etc... to create a professional standard product. It was up to him to decide to charge or give away his album. That decision was taken away from him.
Yes, amateurs can now make much more professional sounding pieces, largely due to technical innovations. However, many experts are highly skilled. What they can do with the same tools is often better, precisely because they can afford to play/record their instruments etc all the time. They build an expertise, a skills base that far exceeds the skills base of most amateurs. You might disagree In the nature of music pros, but they are entitled to make a living from what they do, just as you are. We get to enjoy the fruits of their labour, the skills they have developed... until they leave the industry, To lose that set of skills, that level of skills is a tragedy.
That aside, it is up to artist whether to charge or give away their songs. That the tech exists to easily sidestep all that is immaterial.
You combine the two things as if they were inevitable. Low rates for YouTube Spotify etc are a completely different issue. They are businesses. They make a load of money from advertisers. They and others muddied the waters in several ways. As mentioned search engines prioritised info in a misinformation campaign. They used that to get public opinion on their side in their negotiation... and that most definitely was not set in stone. It also made it socially acceptable for large scale copying, also not set in stone. Prior to that, yes it happened, but it was by a small percentage.
So if I get a car, a house, software, clothes... if I don’t love it I don’t need to pay for it? Ethically you seem to think it acceptable to only pay for what we ultimately loved based upon our conscience. I don’t see many industries surviving that combination.
You might not “feel” people have fotgotten, direct music sales disagrees. Most have. Additionally many have migrated to streaming which pays a pittance. A negotiating strength for which was secured on the same misinformation.
The Grateful Dead? The world was a very, very different place. At that point physical medium acted as a brake. If not they wouldn’t have been pro musicians. They couldn’t.t have afforded it in an era when tours were not profitable and were written off as promotional costs. Merchandise too was much more limited.
My point originally was not that there are not benefits, or that change is not inevitable, but the way it happened was driven by the commercial needs of a few online companies. Your approach seems to be that the ends justify the means.... and I can’t disagree more.