I haven't really used P2P since the Napster days, but I have ripped music or movies from my friends only to find I really enjoy them and buy legal copies. My CD collection would not be anywhere near the size it is if it hadn't been for copying mp3s from my friends. I think the mp3 definitely exposes us to a lot more music than we would in any other way. My friend burns me a disc of mp3s from his music collection, and I am suddenly exposed to a vast library of music, much of which I have never heard before or would have ever heard via radio, and suddenly I discover several new bands I like and would consider buying an album of.

Here at OT.com we have a community of people who share similar tastes. From time to time we talk about music. Let's say someone here recommends to me a band they think I might like, with P2P I could simply go and dl it and decide I like it enough to spend my money on it. Same situation without P2P very likely I will never get to a chance to listen to that band. 20 second sample sound clips just don't cut it, I am not going to decide to buy or not based off of a twenty second, low quality clip. People want to try things before they buy them.