I spent the majority of my life quite angry with those that chose to STEAL music from artists that couldn't even afford their rent. As somebody that had never actually made any money performing music, it was very central to my core beliefs.
Fast forward to my wedding. My best man gave me (and, uh, my wife) a 250G external hard drive chock FULL of music. So now my ethical beliefs on this topic have been totally turned upside down. What do you think? Should we be able to trade music at will? Will this trend be the end of musicians?
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Well David, I have no problem with stealing music 98% of the time. Most of the artists available on these sights are making enough money. Remember that whole Metallica thing? What jerks!
ReplyDeleteAnd for those artists who are generally not making a living off their music, the exposure is what is important. More profit is made from sales at live shows than the cd's they sell. Occaisionally, yes, a deserving artist may lose money, but I think this is rarer than the corporate giants would have us believe.
Also, buy the vinyl. It sounds better :)
Basically, as you may or may not know, my core beliefs basically involve saving the earth. Thus, I consider use of an electrical hard drive extremely unethical and never use electricity myself.
ReplyDeleteAs far as music, you basically can't go wrong with Milli Vanilli. I like to crack open a Zima from my stash and enjoy the sweet grooves. Especially their live stuff.
I'll admit that back in the day, I downloaded some songs off of Napster, etc...but this was the late 90s/early 00s, before there was much of a retail structure to the online music community. Once venues like iTunes were up & running, I went legit (except for the occasional trading of an mp3 amongst fans on music blogs, but I don't do too much of that).
ReplyDeleteFor me, it boils down to my threshold for guilt. Downloading a song or two, to get a taste of a band's sound, doesn't bother me because I don't think that's any different than hearing something on the radio and deciding if I like it or not. (Chances are, if I like it, I'll wind up buying their album.) But I would feel guilty if I downloaded a whole album on the sly--that would feel like I was taking advantage.
I once traded a Mother Goose and Grimm book for a stack of X-men trading cards... biggest mistake of my life.
ReplyDeleteI'm always afraid the "music police" will bust down my door and arrest me (or, worse yet, get me when I'm at school in front of my students), so I always pay for my downloads. (Sharing CDs is a different story though...)
ReplyDeleteBut if the musicians themselves are stealing each others' music (sampling), why can't we? We're not making money off of "borrowed" music, but some of the musicians are, if not directly from the sale of their music, then from performances of said sampled music.
Well Dave, I'm neutral on this topic, but I'm reminded of the time in high school when we ran around mimicking the Mission: Impossible theme song...also I'm drunk, so...
ReplyDeleteHow dare you forget my greatness? You have not been following my amazing blog? You have not been glued to the screen as I deal with all lesser biologists?
ReplyDeletePerhaps you should start at the beginning.
http://worldsgreatestbiologist.blogspot.com/2008/04/documenting-how-im-single-handedly.html
I'm not sure it will be the end of musicians. I mean it's not like socialized health care. I've heard that there is a part of Obamacare that is going to kill elderly musicians if nobody buys their music, so long members of Fleetwood Mac!
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