But they don't spend as much on music as music they consume.

My assertion is that someone that is a casual music fan and only gets 5 albums a year will buy all or most of their albums and someone that gets 50 will pirate a substantial percentage.

You don't think if people bought their albums the chart would be more indicative of a broader sense of taste in in the mainstream than there is now?

I think about strategic downloading...which usually is counter-intuitive of the chart system.

People I know that pirate will also buy. But they tend to buy artists that they know are starting out and need the money and are more likely to pirate the bands that have already 'made it' and so don't really NEED the money. And that is a valid way of deciding on one hand. But the by-product is that the bands they are buying aren't usually going to make much chart impact but the ones the they do down are making decent chart impact but don't get the extra boost.

So, generously, they buy 30 albums from bands most of whom are not going to crack to top 40 and then downloaded 20 bands who were in the top 40 but didn't get credit for all the people that liked their music.

On the other hand the casual music fan buys 5 albums:
Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Justin Beiber, The Jonas Brother, and Miley Cyrus.

All of whom are massive artists and it just clinches the fact that the bands that appeal to music lovers will probably never make an impact next to those that appeal to the people that buy 5 albums a year.