Does the internet benefit the artist or does it mean a loss of CD sales?

A lot of artists are currently debating whether the internet benefits their music or if it is just a plain loss for their CD sales.
If you ask me about a personal opinion, my answer is: the internet is an asset for anybody involved in the music business.
Of course, the internet is also a well known trap for impersonators, liars and different kind of people pretending to be what they are not. Of course, lots of commercial albums are leaked on the net before they arrive on the market, and artists are afraid that people who download their albums in advance won t buy them in the end.
I think that artists like commercial rappers should worry less and consider the blooming of places such as my space and you tube as incredible and powerful promotion tools. Underground artists should be more than pleased to be able to expose their music for promotion purposes. On a side note, I d like to point out that I discovered many of you thanks to places like CD Baby, sound click and, of course, my space and you tube. Those places allowed me to make some reviews of your work and to expose them to the world s eye.
Commercial rappers do worry a lot about the leaking of their albums in advance. I say: Don t!
Yes, I happened to download some of your albums in advance because some people put links for download on different places. Even if I did not buy the album afterwards, this download benefited your business to the fullest.
Because of the genuine passion for the music that I have, I will never download your album selfishly. Let me explain myself on that point: most of the time, I do buy your album afterwards, and in the worst case, when I don t I do work on a detailed review of your music, a review that will be exposed in advance (before your potential buyers decide to buy your album or not) to a worldwide readership-which means, on the long term, an considerable increase of your CD sales.
Imagine that: one single person will allow your CD sales to increase. I know that I am not the only reviewer on the market. So, dear artists, praise God for the internet, because it fully works in your favor!
Copyright 2006 by Isabelle Esling
All Rights Reserved