As I have written before, I stopped buying music entirely for a while now.  But I didn't understand why until recently.  Like everyone else, I used Napster when it first came out.  It was something new and the convenience was addictive.  I waned off Napster when RIAA started bitching but I was spoiled for good by then.

It was not that I got too used to getting music for free.  It was the sense of waste and lowered level of tolerance for mediocracy.  Post-Napster me was no longer willing to buy a full CD just so I can listen a couple of good songs.  My focus changed from albums to individual songs and having to pay for songs I didn't want stopped making sense.

My habit of stopping by music stores to browse also died off while I was into Napster.  Convenience and instant gratification of Napster was just too addictive and left an unrecoverable dent in my habit.  While there are quality differences, the differences don't matter except for only the truely great songs, the keepers.

Then there is the inconvenience of CD players.  To listen to anything, I have to find the CD and insert it into a CD player.  With MP3s, all that is needed is a double-click.  When you compare portable MP3 player versus portable CD player, the impact of changing habits really kicks in.

So it wasn't the P2P music piracy, but the Pandora's Box opened by it.  Simply put, I am no longer the same person I was before the Napster experience.  If the rest of the world have changed like me, music stores and music albums will soon pass.