A conversation with a twenty-something in the office this week about music downloading caught my attention when he remarked that he had started buying CDs again. Intrigued, I asked why he had walked away from free P2P services such as Kazaa, which are still legal to use in Canada until our copyright laws change. His answer was far from definitive - he had just grown tired of "stealing" music. It's an interesting comment because it makes you wonder what's changed, and if this is representative of a growing sentiment. My sense is there may be "P2P Fatigue" starting to emerge. It's like going to an all-you-eat buffet with amazing desserts. After a while, you get stuffed and realize that maybe the next time you're out for dinner, the nice - more expensive - restaurant up the street - with smaller, but better portions - would be a better. You can equate the nicer restaurant to CDs or Web services such as iTunes, which - for a fee - offer high-quality, virus-free downloads. Music retailers are making this option more appealing with lower CD prices and more places online to buy music. Meanwhile, artists such as Dave Matthews are doing what they can to counter stupid moves by the old-guard music industry by giving their customers/fans way to get around Windows Media DRM protection. I'm not suggesting P2P activity is declining and there will be a massive wave of people poised to storm HMV stores or iTunes but maybe more people are deciding to go legit. If P2P Fatigue is really alive and well, there is a huge opportunity for the music industry to win back consumers.This means the industry needs to stop hammering its customers legally and, instead, focus on the benefits of buying legitimate music such as higher-quality products, access to value-added features such as priority concert tickets and merchandise.