I know someone who has 200GB of MP3's and has stopped buying CDs altogether. If they *really* think someone deserves it, they just **buy the CD**. It's neat, simple and fits the existing commercial models. Personally I'd rather be evangelising the message: "If your MP3 player registers you've played a track more than 5 times, show some respect and buy the album from the shops".
Is it better if 10 artists get $1,000,000 each (in the model above), or 1000 artists get $10,000 each (from small online payments directly to the record label)?
Can I afford to pay €15 to listen to each of the 30,000 albums released this year? Maybe I'll just listen to 500 - how much should I be expecting to pay for that, and how many of the artists should be expecting to receive what percentage?