system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
I don't think downloading songs for free which I wouldn't have bought otherwise hurts artists financially. CMV.

If I wouldn't pay for it anyway, but would have it if it was free and it doesn't hurt anyone then why not have it? It could actually benefit artists by bringing awareness to others that hear it when I play it. I could see how giving the songs to someone who would have bought them otherwise would be wrong since that would have taken away potential profits from the artist, but that is a tangent from this post. If I couldn't download the songs for free I wouldn't buy them and would either listen to music on a free service (such as pandora or the radio) or download other work that isn't priced. I will say that is selfish though since you're not really giving back (at least in an expected financial sense) for something provided for you. 

*Edit* - I guess my view is more about large scale sharing being something that shouldn't be looked at as something that hurts artists - its more of an evolution in our society and needs to be embraced by the music industry instead of trying to make it illegal since they can't make as much money through sales anymore. I don't think sharing should be illegal - and "pirating" is just sharing at a larger scale. 

*edit2* - My view is changed and I see the harm that pirating could cause. I think I realized I would listen to the radio or other free to listen things a lot more if I didn't do it - but I also wouldn't have music be involved in my life as much as it is now and enjoy it even close to the same extent (which I hope artists still have as a goal). Downloading songs for free is selfish - whether it has done more good than harm is another question and too complex and subjective to answer.
gpt
How do you know you wouldn't have bought them? There's a lot of research into consumer psychology and behavioral economics, and people actually have remarkably little self-awareness when it comes to why they buy things. Clearly the songs aren't worth nothing to you, since you went to the effort to download them, so you ought to be willing to pay something for them. If you listen to Pandora or the radio, you have to listen to ads, and that can be annoying. Maybe you wouldn't buy all the songs you've downloaded,  but are you really certain that you would never pay for a song if piracy weren't available? Or is that a post-hoc justification for something you sense is morally dubious?