The popular showcased music doesn't seem any worse than ever. But the part about you not buying it is key, because even many of the people who like it won't buy it.
The word "piracy" is incorrect I think, and should be replaced with "internet", or "digital global information distribution network". Things would change with or without piracy.
It used to be that a magazine was a treat of tantalizing tidbits of info. People would pay for a magazine, because of that package of reward, that tickles the brain.
But the packaging was only necessary because, the info needs to be delivered somehow, and how else could it be done? Today, it can be done online.
Instead of paying for a physical package of info, you can see it for free on any internet-capable device, many of which fit in your shirt pocket. That's not piracy.
It's a new model. When is the last time you've used a physical dictionary, or phonebook? Maybe you do and are left out of this new way, but most don't anymore.
Why would you? Why pay for a dictionary, magazine, or use a phonebook when it's all available faster, cheaper, and with the added bonus of social comments?
It's ad-supported now. Even this forum. We're not in a bar, or trade show, where people pay some kind of entrance fee. There's a banner ad ^ for "stereo impulse shaper".
Is that piracy? It's business, but one where the time and place for payment has changed, because the internet lowered costs, and it's not worth it to pay pennies 24/7.
Instead of micropayments, which all of this is worth, we shift it over to the advertisers, who handle it for the masses, and it is how all of this works, from Google to Gearslutz.
But you know what? I still keep getting phonebooks! They go right in the recycle bin, but they keep coming. Some people just refuse to let go of their replaced ways.
Do you want to be one of those people? Do you want to complain about people stealing info that used to only come from your high-priced package of dead tree print?
I would pay someone to take records away from me. I would pay for all my CDs to disappear, because they take up space, and become burden I must deal with someday.
I don't want to buy music in a packaged form like a book. I still want music, but I also do not want to pay $1 for a single song packaged in compressed lossy MP3 format.
Music, like all information, is very cheap now, because much of the cost in the past was in the production, packaging, distribution, and marketing of all kinds of information.
All of those things have dropped extraordinarily in cost, not because of piracy, but because of global electronic distribution channels becoming commonplace.
If you think music sucks today, you're still just looking to those old magazine stands. If you're wondering why no one is paying, while looking there, your conclusion makes sense.
But the real reason is because most people don't need magazine stands anymore. Any existing magazine shop full of them is a relic from decades ago. Things change.
There's so many of these old perspectives still trying to thrive in this forum. Strange, considering this is the internet, and we are talking for free, without pirating.
Even if no one ever pirated a single song, all of this would be happening. It'd just be like the free online dictionary you use, or the free TV show you watch on FOX.com.
Music is cheap. Anyone with the potential can produce it for very cheap in their bedroom during spare time. Then deliver it to the world, for free, instantly.
People aren't buying, because packages of information are like paper maps and phonebooks; no one needs them anymore, and it's actually burden to deal with them.
I can load up a website, and listen to music, for free, without pirating. But the costs are so low, pirating mp3s covers the costs in exchange for promotion and distribution.
Pirating music is a service. Just like, urbandict.com is to dictionaries. People are sharing information, and most people will go there instead of buying some dumb slang dictionary.
As soon as you can realize that, the sooner you stop trying to spread your dead trees to people's driveways, and join the world as it flourishes today, with new distribution.
If music sucks, make it better, and package it in a form where people don't have to pay the cost of having to pull out their wallet, while still making it worth it to you.
It's not enough to just have great music. You need to understand, even if you made the most amazing music ever, it's not worth the burdens involved with paying for it.
One reason is because it's work to make the payment, and there's fees involved. PayPal minimizes some of that, but it's not worth it to type my password for a <=$1 sale.
It's also too much to think about. If you had to think if you wanted to pay some fee to read every thread on this forum, you wouldn't bother to read, and the forum would die.
It also requires layers of complication built into the information, to try to control it and protect it from being freely exchanged, which increases the costs to use it legitly too.
I do not want to have to think to pay something, type in my password, go through the confirmation process, just to get something that is locked up needing more work to use.
It's too much! No music is worth that, because I don't just listen to 1 artist, I listen to 10s to 100s. I also don't know what music I like until I have it and gave it a chance.
There's just no reason to pay. Even if you did love Lady GaGa. Is she really worth the efforts involved with buying a CD or whatever, getting tangled up in restriction?
Just pulling out a CD and inserting it into your car stereo player is too much cost nowadays. The same can be done without thought or action, with auto-MP3 play.
But yeah, there are lots of free legal listening channels, and there are still lots of opportunities, and yeah, you should still hope for better music to be produced.
You just should be sure to recognize the rest of the picture so you don't focus purely on making better stuff, without realizing that it doesn't matter how good it is...
People still won't buy.
Thanks for the opportunity to respond. Thanks for reading. There might've been some words that interested you, but I know you wouldn't have paid for them.

Instead I produce and share this text from within the new information distribution models, where I don't get paid directly. Yet we still do it, we still write and share. It's worth it, just like it's worth trying to produce better music, even if no one pays for it directly. There's ways to make this work, and it's exciting times to be alive for people who love info.