Why do artists complain about P2P?

I honestly do not understand why musical artists complain about P2P file sharing such as bittorrent, edonkey, limewire, etc. These protocols used by millions of users a day, including artists themselves sometimes, get their artwork, music, passion, soul out to the masses for free. No need to pay for a team of people to write ads and post internet sites about you and your music, when you or your fans can get you out there for free! The best examples so far (in my opinion) is Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and the band known to the world as Radiohead. Radiohead recently released an album online for people to download for "price you want to pay" which included free if you so desired. Although most people gave like $5 to $15, some musicians (such as Reznor ) paid much more... $5000. (Nymag.com)

I have heard stories of artists who complain about how they're getting screwed out of money via pirates yet they complain that their label doesn't pay them enough for their hard work. I'm sorry to say this but piracy is one of those things people are going to have to live with until the end of days but there is a plus side to this "evil deed". I mean, free promotion, virtually free distribution, and more fans sounds like some of the best things an artist could ever ask for and yet the one thing most hate more if not the same as their label is piracy. With the label, you have to pay for these things which can be done for free by you and your adoring fans who will pay money to see you live in concert somewhere which will earn you more money than selling the album through your label that would attract those same fans. It's been shown multiple times that the artist doesn't make but a buck or two on an album. Here in the states, a physical cd costs about $15 to $25 depending on where you buy it. THAT'S ALL MARKUP BY THE LABEL! Are we blind here folks? In essence you really aren't supporting the artists' visions and themselves, you are benefiting some rich suit sitting behind a chair and a few lawyers who couldn't make music if their life depended on it.

It's sad to say that label's will not go down without a fight that's for sure, but in the mean time, let's not support them by purchasing their albums from stores. Instead, support the artist directly by purchasing digital copies to hard copies from the artists website. I know that Radiohead and NiN offer this feature on their respected internet domains. As well, if you choose to pirate media, that's up to you, and remember, artists use pirate sites too. NiN's Trent Reznor was a member of the infamous OiNK bittorrent tracker that was taken down some time ago. He even has his own account on The Pirate Bay, which is another bittorrent tracker for those of you who don't know. I hope to see more artists come to the realization as Reznor, Radiohead, and Saul Williams (just to name a few) have and bypass the middle man and go directly to the fans.

Sources

NYMag.com - Trent Reznor and Saul Williams Discuss Their New Collaboration, Mourn OiNK - [http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/10/trent_reznor_and_saul_williams.html]

Gizmodo.com - Radiohead Offers New Album For Whatever You Want to Pay - [http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/digital-downloads/radiohead-offers-new-album-for-whatever-you-want-to-pay-305566.php]

NiN's Official TPB Username - NINOfficial - [http://thepiratebay.org/user/NINOfficial]