I seem to be the only one (in my age group at least) who sides with the artists / record co’s on this topic. I feel like a majority of the arguments people make for stealing (or against the big evil record labels as they might say) are generally to free themselves of guilt that they’ve essentially taken money out of the artists pockets, “they make most of their money from concerts” or “the record companies are the real thieves!”. I for one think that these statements are based on pure speculation. Most artists would be nothing without their record labels. In fact many of the major labels are the ones that organize tours. If the labels were so shitty to artists then artists wouldn’t sign with them to begin with. Many sign with indie labels as well, which are affected to an even greater degree.
I’ve also heard that downloading music benefits artists by diversifying our taste in music. I also think this is a null argument because it’s so easy to get sample clips from online music stores, or even myspace for example. Also, if that were the case, then your taste in music would be a function of the number of uploaders/seeders available. I can see why people would think this, as my own taste in music has changed since being introduced to p2p’s and now torrents. But then again, correlation doesn’t mean causation. Our tastes in music change constantly, and most of the time its affected by our peers (word of mouth), p2p’s are just a convenient method for acquiring tunes for free.
I’m just getting tired of people trying to turn music pirating into some kind of revolt against the greedy corporations, when in fact they just want free shit without guilt.
With regards to software piracy,i fell that if you can afford,or are making a living off the software,you should definitely buy it.I think sharing music is cool,as it often leads people to go out and buy some cd`s,of that artist if they like it.I think that if you have some free tracks of an artist,than you should go and buy some cd’s.
Disclaimer: I don’t pirate music. I download mix sets and free music as provided by artists or, very very rarely (like 1% of the time) copies friends make for me just like back in the days of the cassette. Also, I took this text from Slashdot, but I share this opinion.
In the information age where anything digital can be copied an amazing number of times for virtually no cost - the actual cost of a song is very close to zero.
Therefore that’s exactly what many are willing to pay for it.
Sure, the band had to spend a few weeks writing the thing, and a lifetime learning to play their instruments properly, that’s why they get to charge willing customers for concert performances.
Just like a doctor gets to charge their patients for the skills they have honed over the decades. However a doctor doesn’t become an overnight multi-millionaire just because he/she made a successful diagnosis with a single patient. It takes work, you know?
The “entertainment” industry is long overdue for a “correction”.
To put it another way.
For every hour I have put into making music in my lifetime (i’m 33 so it’s quite a few) I have put in 10 times as many hours skateboarding.
I don’t expect to make money skateboarding, so why should my music hobby be any different?
though really, i can see music piracy and actually all piracy as the beginnings of utopia. the more piracy is fought, the stronger it will get, thus creating the utopia i speak of.
Some artists offer songs for free to download for a short period of time. Like Coldplay or this week Keane offers a new track for free to download the whole week (until tomorrow).
I don’t know if they feel forced to do so or they just do this because they like it.
audio recordings are a very recent invention. musicians have been around far longer than recording technology. Recording technology happened to be profitable for a small window of time, and it’s now on its way out. the end.
People will buy what they like if it’s veryeasy. I think general consensus for some time has been it’s a hassle to buy DRM free music online. The music industry was slow to get online and when they did they cursed it with DRM. I think we’re still suffering the after effects, but believe in a comeback long term.
The content-industry like recordlabels did everything to “fxck” the fans. With napster (the old one) there was a perfect way to promote great music. Instead of pushing this service with freebies the music industry made this lawsuit. And so napster became known to non-geeks. P2P became popular because it was EASY to download stuff and the music actually worked on every mp3-player…
Then the CD-stuff: Damn that idiot who invented copy protection. The music industry was asleep because they didn’trealize that EVERYBODY rips CDs to play the stuff on that tiny little mp3-device…
And I don’t think copies are thievery. Nobody loses anything. For example: You have a car. Now some raw-copy-guy makes a perfect duplicate of it: guess what, you still have a car.
I buy vinyl, good old records for deejaying. no copy protection at all and a warmer sound. No loudness race, too.
when music became a business, the record industry covered every base to make sure their product (artists) made the industry as much as they could squeeze out of them.
in effect artists turned to drugs and got lazy and stupid.
i think the record industry is deeply in need of this payback.
…So I’ll refrain from InDepth comment, but I will say that if you couple a short attention span with economic and cultural hypermania then you can only ever have a mess.
I support what I feel needs to be supported. That may sound a bit asinine, but it’s the way I feel about it. In turn, I give away my own work for free. Music is art, not business.
Pirating music has never really been that much of a danger to society, so the amount of force needed to prevent it has not much been mustered. A musician is pretty much on his/her own unless he/she has a team that includes an entertainment lawyer, manager, accountant, etc.
A career criminal pirating hard goods, accounts, firearms, slaves, counterfeits, etc. is a different story, hence the amount of force needed to protect certain people from it. If your not one of those “certain people”, then your shit out of luck.
A Warner representative just complained about decreasing cd-sales and blamed the piracy. I say the cd-sales have decreased because selling music has gone more and more online, now roughly 10% of music industry.
Also I think the big recordlabels can partly blame themselves for making ridiculous contracts and paying crazy amounts of money for top artists.
CD is an outdated medium and we aint buying yesterday’s technology for over 15 euros a piece. Piracy is just a word thought up by some music millionaire to cover up the industry’s (epic mega) failure and give a dying industry a common enemy. I’m sure it hurts artists as well, but hey… that’s the risk they took by signing that contract with someone who’s solely in it for the money. Besides, most artists on the bandwagon against piracy are fukking loaded already, big house, five cars, seven marriages and enough cocaine to get a small country high.
Fukkem. Hard, too. We have to get off the mp3-train because THEY missed it. Haha. I’d consider it if the alternative was any good, but 15 euros for a plastic disc with 40 minutes of 13 in a dozen music is NOT what makes me a happy camper.
That’s why I visit festivals/concerts. But even there the labels are screwing the artists. Nowadays you only get 360°-contracts which involve that companies get money for the concerts, too.
