I'd hate to believe that the music I spend hours deliberating over, pour my soul into and then spend tons of money recording wasn't worth anything to anybody. Piracy might be easy now and so rife that it can't be beaten (which we're all guilty of), but that's still doesn't make it right.
On the other hand, whoever said that the industry and particularly the artists need to evolve was right. If you're losing money on album sales you have two other options for income - merchandise and gigs. If you're not gigging then you best hope you have deep pockets because the money you have isn't going to last long. When artists like Jacko and Madonna start doing concerts after 20 years off you know something's up.
And the next time you wonder why a concert ticket that was £15 in 1996 is now £50 (unless you're Bon Jovi, in which case your tickets will range from £120 to £1200 for the O2) you can comfort yourself that you've made up the difference all the times you downloaded the newest album rather than buying it