Everytime I've bought something has been because I've realized that it's a good album, movie or game that I want to own. Emphasis here: I want to own the release. This means it doesn't matter if I can get it free because I want to buy it. It also means that subscriptions or DRM remove me from owning what I want to own. I pay for the ability to own what I bought, and for that only.
Now, getting to know what I want to own is a tricky question. I may have read a game review and known that I want to buy tht game. Perhaps a movie was made by someone I know makes good movies, and I know I want to own his next film. Or I hear music at my friend's place and decide that I want that album too. Or I "pirate" releases from a friend or Piratebay or usenet and realize hey this is good stuff, why don't I look up a collection box or greatest hits album somewhere.
However, what has changed is that I no longer want physical cds, dvds, or game boxes. I want what Piratebay offers: downloadable .avi files well-transcoded or flac files without DRM. And I want it easily, from the same unencumbered source instead of hunting for online music stores and trying to figure out if they offer what I want in the right format.
I wonder what happened if Piratebay offered a Pay button on top. You could, if you wanted, pay an amount you think it's worth for what ever downloads you liked. There would be no minimum or set prices because you can get what you want for free anyway. The money would go to the production company or whoever owns the copyright to the song/film/game in question. It would be absolutely net-positive for the copyright owners because the worst that can happen is they get nothing which is exactly what they have now. If you have enough channels that people can use to pay you, a number of them actually will do that, because it's easy and people like to pay for what they want to own.