What's your view on illegal music downloads?

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It is true that when you buy a CD or a file online you're buying music, but on a more basic level, you're buying information. Information can be replicated, whether from one notebook to another or by simply copying a file. Essentially, we can replicate a song, an album, or a band's entire discography an infinite number of times. P2P file sharing takes advantage of this ability of ours, and it grants people like me access to e-books, movies, music and so on -- stuff I wouldn't otherwise have access to, at least not without crippling myself financially.

Should some kind of technology capable of cloning objects ever be invented, I wonder what the government's policy on it would be. Would we clothe, feed and house everyone the world 'round, or would we outlaw it?

I suppose you could also view buying a CD/file(s) online as purchasing a "license to listen to the music", but there's an obvious problem with that -- if you were to listen to the music in range of another person, then that would be breaking the law, too.

I am for downloading illegally, but I will buy cd's produced by independent groups

I kind of get what you're saying, but I have problems with it.

I listen to at least one new album every day - obviously I could never afford to buy all of them, and I don't. But I'd be lying if I said I couldn't afford to buy some of them. (Currently I put as much money as I can afford into my Emusic account each month, then hit P2P sites when that runs out).

However you choose to philosophise about it, it costs money to make records. Even if you choose to dispense with most label admin, eg. pr campaigns, it costs money to pay the band, the producer, the person who mixes the album and any session musicians. It costs money to hire a studio. If nobody paid for music, making albums would be an extremely expensive hobby. A lot less music would be made.

Perhaps the difference between cloning music and objects is that nobody expects a constant stream of innovation in, say, housing. The things you've listed are all functional, hence the world would be happy to continue with replicas of what we already had. I don't know about you, but personally I like to listen to new music, so new albums have to continue to be made, and that costs money.

So, for me, its important to put money back into the system in some way - especially with smaller labels who only really cover costs anyway.



I agree with a lot of this, although I reckon music musicians I admire would say it was a job AND a hobby.

well, P2P has allowed me to find god knows how many new bands that I love
In fact my whole music taste has matured because of it
The only things I can buy (considering I'm still a school pupil) is Albums. Even then they cost £15.

I remember when I was at school, and trying to get to listen to new music... it was impossible. I used to buy a lot of CD singles, but they're so out of fashion now, I guess you can't really get a big selection.

If you have charity shops in your area, you could have a look there - you might find some decent stuff. A lot of journalists go to hand in all the promos they get sent that they don't want.

I guess one of the big problems with legit. download sites is that you have to have an adult current account with a credit/debit card and direct debit facility for subscription services. I wonder how they could ever make them accessible for young people without those things?

I really don't do it. I haven't downloaded music illegally en mass since putting a dozen or so mp3 on a "minidisk" was a novelty, and that was a long time ago. It is not simply about morality, but that is part of it. I can understand the convenience of it. I did burn some dvds of science programs for my volunteering, so I am no saint.

One thing is I have been fortunate that bands I have like a lot have offered some free or extremely cheep stuff, and believe me I would buy anything they release if I can afford it. I rather have a smaller collection of artists in various formats than millions of digital files I hardly listen too.

I do download samples and gratis stuff especially streamed through the flash players.

In many respects convenience and technology has helped the bands. It is sort of a double edged sword. On the one hand production cost have gone down, on the other hand some are getting less for their effort, and can struggle to do their own distribution.

However, I think it is good for the "music industry" over all because it makes it more feasible for small record companies and DIY recording. People who are threatened by this have a vested interest in stopping those.

It is not about "sell out" as everything has some artistic merit and there is no reason why you have to be DIY. It is more a case of people who want to exploit artists to get the most money out of them short term and have little interest in the actual music. Good riddance to them.

I am sort of copy left. I do however think that ideas and creations can be fragile at the start to a lesser or greater degree. "Intellectual property" laws are a farce though. They rarely help the originator, but rather are just another form of corporate protectionism, which has lead to this economic crisis.

People like Cliff Richard have campaigned to get indefinite royalties off their songs even after 50+ years. I think this is ridiculous. If anything they should be shorting the royalty period. Up until quite recently people were still paying for the Happy Birthday song. Artists don’t always benefit, in fact it can lock them out. Nina Simone is a case and point of someone who never really benefited from her success.

Those who like international music (ie. the J-music fans) would have a terrible time getting the albums in the US. If they could, I would reccomend that they buy it... however, the costs of music CDs from other countries (I think Nana Kitade CDs on Amazon are over $50!) would prohibit it for much of us, especially those who are minors. I prefer not to download it. Streaming it is good enough for me. But I'm sure that there's some exceptions. Not many, but a few are there.

EDIT: But I'm sure that in other Western countries, it would still be hard to get stuff from Asia. But it's only an example.

well, i'd downlaod the odd number of tracks every so often if it's only that song that i like by the artist, but if i like thw whole album as a whole, i'd go out and buy it it just makes more sense to me and some other people that way, and also it saves you the money you will spend on the other songs that you probably would'nt like

i guess it is a problem for aspiring artists with a modern fan base.

but i download songs from torrents (usually entire discographies) that are mainly older artists like billy joel and frank zappa etc.

they have already made their millions, and their album sales are almost finished, and an extra $60 from me is not going to make any difference to their futures.

as to the aspiring bands, i sometimes download songs for my girlfriend who wants to hear an emerging band that she has heard her friends talk about.

usually she does not like the song, and almost always i do not like the song, and therefore it is not robbery because we never would have spent money on buying their songs if that was the only way we could get them.

people should make music only because they have a song to sing.
they should not churn it out with electronic assistance, and an adherence to a recipe that will guarantee a monetary profit.
music is an industry now, and that ensures that packaging will be the dominant influence of songs.
as long as music is created with an audience in mind, it is a marketing strategy for attracting sales.

if that industry dies, then people already have the ability to record their own music in a very clear way, and if their incentive is no more than sharing their music, then it is likely to be superior music to that which is available on the market.

the internet will ensure maximum exposure of those with the greatest talent, even if they would have been rejected by recording companies due to image problems.

people who play songs to express their feelings to many people for free are more likely to be original, and uncontrived by marketers.

whatever.
i guess it is good to provide incentive for young artists to continue their quest to produce good music by paying for their songs.

I often download music records via torrents. If I like them I'll buy them, otherwise I delete the files. At any given time about 99% of the music I have is purchased music, and the other 1% is music I'm trialling.

I suppose like most other people, I buy the music I want to hear. Sometimes I take a risk and buy a CD by a band I've never heard of, just to see what it's like. It's not the most cost effective lifestyle, but it works for me. I think musicians have earned the right to sell their music if they want to, and have the ability to. You wouldn't happily steal all of a farmers crop because he gets enough money from the insurance, so why would you want to steal someones hard work? Blame capitalism.

There's a pretty healthy amount of opportunities to "sample" music before you buy an album, between samples, myspace pages, media on the artists webpage, or crappy youtube versions. There's no excuse for stealing music IMO.

Exactly. I hear that's how it is in Canada. Whether it's true or not, I dunno.

I used to P2P very sparingly. I mainly buy CDs. If I download, I usually buy from iTunes or some other store. Now, I don't P2P, unless it's completely impossible to legally purchase it by CD nor mp3. I don't like to steal, it's always eaten me down inside every time.

I think what's really happening is a generational issue. P2P has been a big thing for maybe 10 years now, at least. That's a whole generation of kids who have entered and exited their teens, when people (usually) first get into music etc. And all those kids grew up thinking they don't have to pay for music. So I think if you break apart CD sales these days by age, I'll bet its skewed a lot more toward the older end of the spectrum than it ever has been before. What happens when those older buyers are no longer spending money or have passed on? So, IMHO the recording industry has a much bigger long term problem than any problems they may or may not have in the short term.

I generally buy music on CD. Both because I like supporting new bands, and because I don't think mp3 format will last as long as CDs will.

I only pirate music when:

A: the music is unbuyable. I don't mean I can't afford it, I mean I just can't find it in stores. This is pretty rare.

B: I own the vinyl, but don't have the vinyl-mp3 attachment for my laptop. Records don't fit in the CD drive, I totally tried it. Even then, I can't find a place to pirate Terry Bradshaw's gospel album.

C: I want to find a few good songs from a band that I know will be 95% trash. For example, GWAR. I like some of their stuff, but no way am I going to buy all the CDs so I can hear the whole songs, just do keep one song per CD on my iPod.

****

"Every time you pirate a song, God kills a kitten."
"So?"
"Every time you pirate a movie, God kills a puppy."
"Ok, now you've got a point."

Some bands benefit from people downloading their music. There's been more then one indie band that's made it big as a result. My thoughts on this subject can basically be summed up in 1 word.
Soulseek