Ah, now the age old argument of Vinyl vs. CD. I would agree that Vinyl may sound a bit warmer, but the dynamic range, frequency response and overall sound quality was no match for the CD. To your point about the artists, the successful ones do their own A&R, write and produce their own work, and probably earn 5-10 times as much as their earlier counterparts. I agree that without vehicles like American Idol, the industry would probably belong to ITunes.
Phil