The price of CDs were not "artificially high." That's copyrighted material. The copyright holder is supposed to have a monopoly on it. That means that they get

The price of CDs were not "artificially high." That's copyrighted material. The copyright holder is supposed to have a monopoly on it. That means that they get to charge whatever they think the market will bear, not what you think is fair or the cost of production + x%. There were at least a few labels like Dischord that charged lower prices, but the masses didn't want that music. They wanted major label stars with lots of marketing behind them. If the copyright holders still had the ability to enforce copyright, the fact that internet distribution is cheap wouldn't mean anything, except that they would be able to charge less and still turn a profit. The real problem with the internet for them is that it made piracy on a massive scale easily accessible. You don't have to respect their copyright anymore. I'm kinda old now and don't follow pop music that closely anymore, but as far as I know the masses still want their top 40 pop music recorded by heavily marketed stars, not some dude on an indie label or no label at all who used his laptop as a recording studio. So the fact that said dude has an easier time now is irrelevant, except to the minority of people who are interested in hearing/recording that kind of thing.