This is why the music industry (at least those who steal the artist’s money portion of the industry) is afraid of the internet.

I deal with independent bands all day every day. That is my business, dealing with independent bands. They have a better time now than they have ever had. Gig prices have escalated. Gig fees are an order of magnitude higher than they were at the beginning of the ’90s. Ten times. You can go see shows now for $20 there were literally $2. The great vast majority of that money is going to the bands.

That’s Steve Albini, the first music producer whose name I ever knew, way back in the early ‘90s.

“Piracy” was always a canard designed to generate legal support for essentially eliminating the internet. Anyone smart has known that since ever.