OP, P2P sharing is NOT killing the music industry. That's complete bull. Think about it this way, usually people go on to P2P sites to download a single that they heard on the radio. They search up the artist, and get the song they want, but then they see their others songs and are like, "eh, what the hell?", and they download them. Then they hear the songs and like them a lot, then that artist becomes one of their favorite bands and they'll be willing to spend good money to go to their concerts, some people will actually buy the CDs, others will buy merchandise, etc...Honestly, they make money no matter what! A LOT of it.
You know all that mainstream music you hear on the radio? Ke$ha, and Taylor Swift and all that? Everyday, there must be at LEAST a million copies of their songs downloaded on the internet.
If you think in iTunes terms, that's 1 million dollars not gained every day. Yet, how do these celebrities still end up on the millionaires list basically overnight? Look at Justin Beiber, that kid is LOADED, and one of his songs was one of the highest "illegally" downloaded songs in 2010. Just the concerts, tours, merchandise, the album sales, iTunes sales, is more than enough to have turned this simple YouTube teen kid into a millionaire in less than 6 months. As an artist, i'd love to have people "buy" my CD, but if people are downloading it, that doesn't really tell me that they're stealing from me, as much as it is "They fucking love my music, and are breaking the law to even listen to it!
The music business is not really crashing. If anything, it's always growing. At least in terms of payout and money flow. As said before, so many of these young start ups are making millions in a short time just because of some stupid single that plays 20 times on the radio. Once they're done, they wash out. Nobody gives a damn about them, because they only hit the inspiration pot once. They made a song, it was popular, and then they can't think of anything else. It's so sad to see that you barely see real bands like Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin, and such. They had to work their asses off to even be given a chance.
Here's a tip to everyone: Go out and party, come home, get out Fruity Loops and write a song about how cool it was, upload to YouTube and watch the millions roll in.