The simple fact is the genies out of the bag for the music co's. No matter how you view it, eventually I'll bet the price of a CD will come way down to offset downloading. The idea of distributing quality music over the net seems so efficient, it appears inevitable.
If I could spend $10 to put 20 of my favorite tracks from different artists on a CD for a river trip or something and have it sound really good, you bet I'd do it. That being said, I'm not much of an audiophile and don't buy a lot of music. Never have downloaded anything, but I've listened to some download music, wasn't very impressed with the quality.
I do have a problem with the lawsuits going on with the RIAA, it just seems nothing is really secure on the internet, especially that desktop in your house. Too easy for outsiders to deposit stuff on your harddrive. If it's accepted as a pretty much insecure medium, how can you drag people into court over it?