The Friday File: Digital piracy hurts artists and record companies, but consumers? By constructing indexes of music quality based on critics’ opinions, radio play, and sales volume, there’s no evidence of a decline. The indexes all show music quality rising in the 60s, falling in the 70s and 80s and then either flattening or rising sharply after ’99, when piracy got popular. It’s because artists now make their money concertizing.