Mariah Carey - Carey Fuming Over Illegal Downloads

MARIAH CAREY has blamed music industry bosses for failing to spot the internet download trend - accusing record labels of letting their artists down by allowing illegal file-sharing to become commonplace.

Carey is adamant label bosses should have realised the potential of the internet a long time before illicit song swapping became prevalent, and she's furious because the practise means many musicians lose out on precious royalty money.

The Hero hitmaker insists that although record labels are slowly beginning to grasp the potential of the internet, they will never be able to repair the damage done by illegal downloads, because many consumers now feel entitled to get their music for free.

She says, "Frickin' idiots! A lot of big, powerful music industry executives made a giant mistake and now we're all paying the price. They gave the music business away on the internet. If they had just sat back and said, 'Maybe let's figure this internet thing out, it could be something cool,' we could have found a way to distribute music online on our own terms, not somebody else's.

"Prince had already shown them the way. He was so far ahead of the curve, putting his records out on the web. Everyone else was stupid."