Often the album is boring filler around the hit song. As a result, singles have always represented a huge source of revenue. Given that the average Pop song has a shelf life of about a season before a new hit takes over, this is a very profitable business. Whatever the original intentions, Napster was embraced by the popular music community. With Napster, pop music consumers could grab their favourite songs of the moment, listen to them until they were sick of them, and delete them all for free.
Music is a very tightly controlled business and thus the prices are inflated.
Like gas, the public knows it's getting screwed when paying for music, but when there's only one method of distribution there isn't much one can do. Napster represented the first efficient method for pirating music that anyone could use. From a consumer's point of view, this was an opportunity to get some free music while simultaneously taking a little jab at the industry, but what the RIAA forgets is that the popularity of Napster is in retaliation to a demand that they created in an effort to make as much money as possible. Despite this, I do agree with the courts' ruling that Napster is theft. I expect to be paying for my downloads someday.