Whats the point of owning an album if you can listen to a song or listen to it on the internet?

What's the point of owning a CD? I hope Piracy destroys the industry and bands go back to their roots, aka, playing concerts and getting money that way rather than working through a series of middlemen who all charge ludicrus rates thus driving up the price of a CD. The price of a CD is now so great that what was once a "pocket money" item has now become an almost luxury item. I do not now nor will I ever buy a CD. All my music is pirated except for that by artists I loved before CDs became popular (yes I'm over 40) and the only reason I've got their CDs is because a) I've lost or broken the original vinyl, b) the money for the CD actually does go back to the artists NOT the promoting company and c) I know that the band tours regularly and works very hard for their money.

Oh, there is also the case that most CDs today are not "albums" just a collection of singles and remixes or just have that one song you actually want and the rest of teh album is filled with fluff to pad it out.

na, downloading has been a godsend for the music industry especially piracy and it is the digital equivalent of the old days where bands that are capable of proving their worth survive and those that are to weak to survive without massive publicity and investement by the corporations will die. Half the bands in the charts throughout the 90s and 00s wouldn't have been there without the corporations desperately pouring money into them and they didn't deserve to be there either. The dross of the 90s and the 00s is the result of the spasaming death throes of the industry. It's dying now and in another 10 years a new model will have arrived. One that better serves the bands, their customers and sticks two fingers up at the corporations that stifle real musical talent.