"...the idea that a legal media purchase could be the undoing of a piracy king kinda breaks the irony meter."

You sir, just put it as good as in a few words, as tried in a whole article. Good job there, you totally nailed it !

As long as people can not afford to pay for content, are scared away by high prices, piracy will always continue.
Library Coin might change that although.

Here is a very in dept post about LBC, that went unnoticed unfortunately :https://steemit.com/library/@thecryptoadvisor/what-in-the-world-is-a-library-credit-lbc-crypto-currency by #thecryptoadvisor

Although i want to comment something else.
I recently thought alot about our youth, me included, is influenced by big media lables in the way they perceive what is "hip" .
Basically non of the kids listens to other genres , because it is now what the popculture represents nowadays. People chase the images they see on VH1. And who can blame them? We all want to be recognized, and especially youngsters are dependent on that.

Now imagine all the big music labels tremble under the influence of library coin. We would see a much greater spectrum of genres and cut all the bullshit from Warner Bros. etc.
Hyping crappy music like e.g Wiz Khalifa is just plain immoral lol. You can in no way argue that is music that has any outstanding qualities.

However, with #Kickasstorrent going down we will see the rise of another platform alike and ultimately the privacy will win, which will result in the downfall of many big labels.

I therefore support those sites and hope for LBC to shine :)