"Free" Downloads

I run a fan club on Yahoo Music Groups and network on Ning. Because of this I like to keep as much up-to-date on Barry Manilow's career as possible. My main source of information is Manilow.com of course, but I also use Google Alerts.
Normally I have it set to just search his name, but since he has a new cd, The Greatest Love Songs of All Time, out this week, I changed the search parameters to include the title of cd last week. What surprised me was the number of alerts I received, starting last week, that included blogs and websites that offered free downloads of the new cd even before its street release, which was yesterday.
I'm going to make a confession. i once had a blog, quite awhile back, where I did the same thing. Offered downloads of my favorite cds. But that was before I educated myself and understood the ramifications of what I was doing. Once I did, I deleted the blog.
Ever since then, whenever I see something like that, it tends to piss me off.
Here's an idea of what happens: You download music from one of these sites. The artist loses money, the record label loses money, they need to make it up somewhere so they increase the price of cds and charge more from radio stations and television networks for pay-for-play of their artists, radio stations run short of funds to stay on the air so they stop playing the more expensive of the artists, change their formats so it's cheaper, or go off the air altogether which leaves an audience with a demand not being met and because cds have become so expensive... you got it... they look for free downloads. It's a vicious circle.
Oh, and never mind the fact that, sometimes, some asshole thinks it's funny to set it up so that when you think your getting music from one of your favorite artists, what you really get when you open that zip folder... what you really get is a nasty virus on your computer.
The truth is... nothing is free. We all pay... one way or another.
So when you see that "free download" link for your favorite artist... do all of us a favor, including the artist. Pass up the link, go down to your local Wal-Mart or favorite music store and buy that cd.