&gt; It still feels wrong when popular artists do not get paid for their work because it&#x27;s more convenient for people to pirate it.<p>Popular artists <i>barely</i> get paid for the sale of their music. They earn the bulk of their money from touring and merchandise sales (see: finite things).<p>Given that, piracy is actually far more detrimental to the publisher&#x2F;label than it is to the artist because it could mean an additional fan to purchase another ticket at a show or buy another t-shirt at a merch table.<p>In fact, by charging money for the music, it actively discourages people from listening to it because they can&#x27;t afford it or already spent their budget on artists they already know and like. In an industry where gaining fans is the most important thing you can do, this seems counterproductive.