Won't be taking the contributions to this thread as an accurate market sample.
All I know is that over the last 5 years, the volume of illegally downloaded music has rocketed and in the same time period CD sales have plummeted. Now lets see what that tells us 
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For every kind soul like Old Blue, who downloads an album then buys it on release there's many more that stick with the illegal version. Why shell out for something you've already got ? unless you're the real hard core of the fanbase.
Not that surprised that professional musicians get wound up by this.
Think how little cash we had in our yoot, if there was a free way of getting albums then we'd have jumped at it. Ok, we swapped each others albums and taped 'em but that didn't give us access to much. Soulseek is like going into the Record store, bundling as much gear into your basket as you like then breezing out without paying.
I can't see anyone pursauding me that p2p sites are a swings and roundabouts situation. The figures speak for themselves. Fans gain, artists lose. In the long run I can see this costing fans too, some starting-out bands just won't find it commercially viable to continue and will have to revert to a more conventional living and their music will never make it out there. That'll be a shame but you can see it happening can't you ?
You can't halt progress but you can police it properly to stop it getting into the wrong hands. Record Companies should be thinking innovatively about how to capitalise on the download market and lobbying the authorities to put in place enforceable discencentives.
Can't wait to see some smug 17 year old net-head being dispatched to a young offenders for illegal downloads. In a cell with a GBH case...."so what did you do to get in here ?".....KER-POW!.
