Lars Ulrich, and the music industry

Lars Ulrich needs to stay away from the mic. Back in his Master of Puppets days, he really had some crazy chops going for him, and he's an overall pretty decent drummer. But I'm not sure how much good he really did anyone by coming out and bad mouthing P2P's. From what I understand in class, most of the people don't get hardly any money from their record sales because most of it goes back to their record company, except the really huge acts, and Metallica would be one of them. The band deserves a good amount of money. They were a great band from their thrash days up to their blues-metal days, and have some of the best riffs in the history of riffs, but I think there was a point where getting the fame they finally deserved (in this case, they were still teenagers, but I'm speaking of bands in general), and getting too much money made at least one member of the band a little too greedy. Lars Ulrich, making a huge amount of money from The Black album, which still sells a ton of copies from what I understand, finally made it. Once he gets there he decides that he thinks it is annoying that these people are listening to his music without paying for it. That's understandable to a certain degree, but there are still quite a bit of people paying for Metallica's albums, and hardly anyone paying for band A, who just put their stuff on Oink. After a while, people start to really dig band A, and they decide that they're so good that they are gonna go to Wal Mart, and actually pay for an album by them, and then attend one of their shows.

I don't think Metallica understood how helpful P2p's were to small bands just starting out. They just saw P2P's as one opportunity where they fail to get more money, and failed to look at the benefits it has for other bands.
I haven't checked out the deal with Radiohead's new album yet, but from what I have heard you say, I think that in a perfect world, this is how the music industry should operate. Admittedly, I only buy CD's of bands that I want to support, and I listen to new music of bands I have never heard of by other means. Since I really enjoyed OK Computer, and The Bends, I might give Radiohead a little something. Donations seem a little insane to me, but it is certainly a very Christian idea. If you like their, art, they are confident that you will pay them enough for it so they can still make a living. It's a wonderful concept that will never get very far in the U.S. with mainstream acts like Metallica of which some members are far too greedy and suspicious of the public.