People paying $20 for a CD had nothing to do with people downloading music. It had everything to do with technology simply allowing people to share CD quality music for free. The same thing will happen when we can share blueprints for our 3D printers that allow us to print other intellectual property for free.
The industry would much rather sell a product at a premium price rather than stream. All they did was lower the product's value to such a degree that it doesn't make sense to purchase digital files, or even physical products (unless they're special collector's edition, vinyl, or whatever).
Music isn't really seen as a commodity anymore. I'm sure you, being a CD trader/bootlegger back in the day can remember a time when, if you wanted to listen to the new Megadeth or whatever, you either had to buy the album, or you went over to a friend's house to jam out to it. It was a communal experience in that regard. Nobody treats music like that anymore. I have some really fond memories as a teenager either hanging out in my room or my friends and just listening to music and talking about it. Most kids will never get to experience that, and that kind of sucks.
This is a great post. It reminds me of a time in high school when I went over to another kid's house. We didn't really have anything in common except that we both liked metal. His walls were completely covered (to the point that you couldn't see any paint) with posters, concert flyers, etc. from various metal bands. I checked out his CD collection, he showed me some mix tapes he had made (he had an all-instrumental tape that he made that had Call of Kthulu and Orion on it, but not To Live is to Die because of the spoken part.) We ended up walking over to a record store not far from his house, and I bought a 12" Jump in the Fire single on translucent red vinyl, and a slightly warped but still fine used Megaforce release Kill 'em All. Still have em both.
Actually, kinda funny story about that kid. He was the stereotypical metal head. Long hair, black clothes, Docs. The teachers all hated him (which is funny because he was one of the class valedictorians when he graduated with his straight A's.) Well for some dumb reason, when they put the year book together every year, who went in the year book and at which grade was dictated purely by who got their picture taken on picture day (and not by, I dunno, looking at the school's roster). So as a joke, on picture day he goes and hand in his sheet saying who he is and gets his picture taken, but somehow he had a second blank sheet. So he fills that one out, same grade and whatnot, but with the name "Cliff Burton". Goes to a different photographer in the gym, hands him the paper, and gets a second picture taken. Well, the end of the year comes and we all get our yearbooks, and sure enough he's in there twice. Once as himself, and once as fucking Cliff Burton.