Controversial opinions on metal

I don't really see why it's more ethical to spend (say) $40 a month on new music and not download anything than it is to spend $40 a month on new music and download stuff too. Either way the artists/labels get the same amount of financial support, the only difference is that in the second case you also get to listen to more good music.
 
Internally Deformed said:
I don't really see why it's more ethical to spend (say) $40 a month on new music and not download anything than it is to spend $40 a month on new music and download stuff too. Either way the artists/labels get the same amount of financial support, the only difference is that in the second case you also get to listen to more good music.
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It's automatically more ethical to not steal something that doesn't belong to you. That's just reality.
 
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Elric of Melniboné said:
It's automatically more ethical to not steal something that doesn't belong to you. That's just reality.
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The concept of theft doesn't really fully apply to downloading in my view, because you're not actually depriving anyone of something. If I stole $10 from your wallet, that sucks for you because you're now down $10. In the case of music, if I download your album all I'm depriving you of is the potential to sell to me - you don't actually lose anything unless I would have bought your album were downloading not a possibility. Therefore people only ought to feel guilty about downloading if they're not also buying albums.
 
Your incorrect view doesn't change the fact that you're behaving in an entitled manner and stealing something, nor does it change the fact that downloading albums harms independent record labels and artists. It's not really debatable.

People will continue to download music and make up excuses for why they do that instead of buying it, but they won't be able to change reality with their weak justifications for entitlement.
 
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Elric of Melniboné said:
Your incorrect view doesn't change the fact that you're behaving in an entitled manner and stealing something, nor does it change the fact that downloading albums harms independent record labels and artists. It's not really debatable.

People will continue to download music and make up excuses for why they do that instead of buying it, but they won't be able to change reality with their weak justifications for entitlement.
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I find it funny that most of the bands I've seen interviewed in recent years on this subject are way more open minded than you are about it. Extreme or experimental acts in particular tend to realise that a lot of listeners would never have even had the chance to broaden their horizons and explore their genre if it wasn't for the increased freedom downloading brings.
 
I agree that downloading and stealing aren't really comparable most of the time but still, it isn't really as simple as that, what if you download two albums and one is great and the other is pretty good. You decide that the great one is worth buying so you buy it and another different album alltogether. Then you sit at home one day at the computer and listen to that pretty good album, haven't you actively decided to not support that band/label despite using their product?
 
Vilden said:
I agree that downloading and stealing aren't really comparable most of the time but still, it isn't really as simple as that, what if you download two albums and one is great and the other is pretty good. You decide that the great one is worth buying so you buy it and another different album alltogether. Then you sit at home one day at the computer and listen to that pretty good album, haven't you actively decided to not support that band/label despite using their product?
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Yes, you have. That's a shitty thing to do for obvious reasons.
 
My opinion on illegal downloading has changed over the years. I care less about it now, though I'm still 100% against it and have never done it myself.

The main issue I have can actually be compared to how I feel about welfare, my disagreement lay more with those that exclusively illegally download music, rather than those that download as a first step in spending actual money on a product, because your ability to exclusively illegally download relies on people like me spending money for music.

Same with employed people putting tax money into the welfare programs, if not for my money you wouldn't even have anything to download, leaving aside a few bedroom music projects giving their stuff away for free.

I fucking hate scabs.
 
Vilden said:
I agree that downloading and stealing aren't really comparable most of the time but still, it isn't really as simple as that, what if you download two albums and one is great and the other is pretty good. You decide that the great one is worth buying so you buy it and another different album alltogether. Then you sit at home one day at the computer and listen to that pretty good album, haven't you actively decided to not support that band/label despite using their product?
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The issue, though, is would you definitely have bought that second album if you hadn't had the option to download it? If so you're then depriving the band of their income, but if (as is often the case) you'd never have taken a chance on them without the option to listen in advance, or (equally possible) would never even have heard of them without the increased exposure provided by DLing, it would be hard to argue that you'd actually taken anything from them.

I'll restate my first post: providing the amount you spend on music is consistent with how much you would have spent in the pre-download era, it hurts absolutely no one to download music. Things only get grey when your ability to download affects the amount you spend, which in many cases it does.
 
CASSETTEISGOD said:
My opinion on illegal downloading has changed over the years. I care less about it now, though I'm still 100% against it and have never done it myself.
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Given how many obscure bands you post, your record collection must be absolutely colossal. Do you own albums from all the bands you rec, or have you just listened to some of them on youtube or other streaming services?
 
Internally Deformed said:
Given how many obscure bands you post, your record collection must be absolutely colossal. Do you own albums from all the bands you rec, or have you just listened to some of them on youtube or other streaming services?
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It's a pretty decent collection I guess, though you'll probably notice I mostly post things that aren't black metal or death metal, I sold off a huge chunk of music over the last two years.

Also a lot of my collection is tape these days, vinyl is the minority.
 
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