One more music pirating article

[006]

Found an article posted recently that had a more positive view on pirating music than I'm use to seeing...

You mention in the book that a long time ago, live music felt threatened by records. And then later, recorded music felt threatened by recordable cassette tapes. Now it's MP3s and illegally downloaded music. Is this a real threat, or people are just worried about nothing?

Every time these technological advances came along, the people invested in the music business at the time took it as a threat to their livelihoods. If you had a phonograph player in your house, why would you ever go outside of your house to listen to live music again? In the 1980s, the music industry took out full-page ads in Billboard and other magazines saying, "Home taping is killing music." They thought that because people had cassette tapes they would just tape their friends' music and never buy albums again.

These advances did not decrease the desire for music, but rather exponentially increased it. I think the same is true now. More people are listening to more music than in any other time in history. Why is that a bad thing?


You mention a guy who says he's only bought four albums since 1998. But then you have stories about bands like Bright Eyes and Death Cab who make it big because of the Internet. This seems contradictory to me.

I intentionally included that guy in my book to indicate that for some people, [stealing music] is really out of hand. This guy has clearly exploited the system. The flip side of the model is you have people who listen to a sample, like it and buy it. Just because a listener downloads a piece of music doesn't mean the industry has a lost sale.


Right, cause without downloading it the person may have never heard it.

The biggest problem a band has is getting its music heard. For years, the music industry was confined to four multinational corporations that dominated the revenue stream of 70% of the music coming in, and four or five radio conglomerates that controlled what music was going out. Now all that has been broken up into millions and millions of little pieces and subcultures and niches that are serving small, really dedicated communities of music lovers. Listeners may not necessarily pay for that one song or the one album, but if they're intrigued enough, they're going to start following an artist or band. They show up at the gig or buy the merchandise or buy the next CD or the vinyl version of the MP3 they just downloaded. If you're a good band and making quality music, your fans are going to want every piece of what you put out. Once an audience is there, there are all sort of money-making opportunities.

The original is here.

And no, this is not me saying it's ok to pirate music.

 

[Damian B]

The traditional music business is changing, no matter how hard the labels may try to stop it. And it doesn't come down to morals or ethics, it's just the way it is. The music industry will have to adapt to stay relevant.

 

[tim290280]

I just hate record companies telling me that I have to buy what they want to sell me rather than the music I want to listen to in the manner that is the best for me.

I have actually bought more music in the past year due to "illegal" downloads opening the door to more bands for me.

 

[James Murphy]

it's amamzing how i buy at least 10 cd's a month... waaay more this past month.... and still manage to legally preview online everything i buy without having to illegally download a damned thing. this guy is wrong... this era doesn't compare because at no other time in history has damned near every CD chain either gone out of business or scaled waay back on it's way to going out of business. his little example of the guy who "abuses the system" is the norm now, not an exception. so he's wrong there too. and he's being totally self-serving, because his convenient viewpoints are selling him books... i hope most people just download an illegal .pdf of it and don't buy it. yes the music biz must and will change, and is changing.... but for the hundredth time, that change cannot and will not be to make all music free for the taking. that's economics folks, and until there are Maxwell House or Sainsbury adverts between tracks on new Dimmu Borgir CDs, it never will be.

 

[LydonB]

James, do you just listen to clips on Amazon.com/iTunes and places like that to preview albums? Or is there some place to listen to multiple complete tracks?

I know sometimes bands do the whole album on Myspace for a short time, which I think is great. It just gets hard to listen to at times because of the quality of audio

 

[Skinny Viking]

... and until there are Maxwell House or Sainsbury adverts between tracks on new Dimmu Borgir CDs, it never will be.

"Do you folks like COFFEE?!?!?!"

 

[Metaltastic]

God I wish Spotify would be permitted in the US :Smug:

 

[LydonB]

God I wish Spotify would be permitted in the US :Smug:

It would be do awesome to have for sure.

 

[GarethSE]

I'm guilty as charged when it comes to downloading way too many albums. My outgoing income is much less than it used to be, so I've got a bit more money to spend on CD's and DVD's at the minute, which is nice. I've been buying more recently, and I do feel so much better for it.

And as for whether it's right or not? Of course it's wrong, but I.. How shall I put this.. Sympathise? with the argument that the industry is changing, just not in the way that OMG THAT MEANS YOU CAN DOWNLOAD CD'S WITH A CLEAN CONSCIENCE LOL or whatever. I like that more bands are releasing EP's free online. You go on music blogspots and you see messages saying "if you want your bands EP/LP uploading here, contact us!" and personally, I'm all for that. Any publicity is good publicity and all that. But yeah, I'm completely guilty when it comes to downloading a lot of music, as I'm sure many of us are. The only, miniscule point I can think of to justify it, is that a lot of albums that have turned out to be ALL TIME favourites of mine are ones that I hated at first, and if it weren't for illegally downloaded mp3's, I wouldn't have given them a second listen, and therefore, I wouldn't have ever liked them enough to buy the CD.
Apart from that, I try and buy CD's I really, really like whenever I can. As soon as I have more income, aside from going steadily more legit with all my recording software, guess where else the money's going? On a shit load of CD's 8)

 

[Metaltastic]

It would be do awesome to have for sure.

Hahaha, well said

 

[Line666]

Can't you guys in the US just use a proxy and a fake UK postcode to register for access to the service?

I know it technically wouldnt be legit but its not like you'd be doing any harm.

 

[Metaltastic]

Well I dunno how to use proxies but I did have Stee (cobhc) register for me with a UK address - it worked for two weeks, but then they said I had used up my time away from my "permanent residence" :Smug:

 

[LydonB]

Hahaha, well said

grammar FAIL

 

[Erkan]

Are there any places that sell uncompressed CDs online? I have absolutely no desire to buy a CD just for the sake of buying it, I hate having physical clumsy discs of plastic lying around in racks at my place. I've come across MP3 sales but if I want to support let's say Devin Townsend, is there any "must know" website to go to, to buy an uncompressed version of the thing? If anyone knows, let me know, because after summer, I'm about to blow up some money and support all the bands that have meant anything to me over the last year.

As for the piracy debate, I know many will find this morally wrong but I have come to realize most of the music I listen to has been the kind that takes a long time to grow in on me. I'm just not a sucker for "oooo they have long blonde hair and are playing power chords on the inlays, ME LIKES". Just like Gareth, I admit I have downloaded too much in the past, but most of it has ended up in the trash can, leaving only the bands that have meant something to me, which I will also be supporting in some way after this summer.

As for anti-piracy, I hate their guts for how cunt-like their behaviour is getting these days when it comes to stopping piracy. Just recently, Sony, Universal and 2 other big companies sued and wanted to ban/forbid a swedish company called "Black Internet" for providing The Pirate Bay with an internet connection. Black Internet is just a company that provides bandwidth for other companies and organizations, they are not doing anything illegal so I don't really understand what the morning meetings look like among the record labels these days. It must be something like "SHIT GUYS, WE ARE LOSING MONEY, QUICKLY GO SUE SOMEONE, SOMETHING... ANYTHING! GO!!". If someone legally provides you something and you use it for the wrong purpose, are you the one to get sued or is the provider to get sued? Snap the fuck out of it, seriously.

The mentality they have at this stage just reeks of desperation. Why are they attacking third parts that have nothing to do with the clusterfuck that is going on? Let me say once again that piracy is not moral and correct, stealing is not correct, the artists need their money and so on, but it is still a fact that piracy has existed ever since casette tapes were introduced, and it will never stop as long as our technology is the way it is. You can bark all you want about how this doesn't make it right, and yes you are right about that and I agree, but barking and blindly missing the point is hardly the cool thing to do. This is the same thing as any crime, take robbery for example. Robbery will never stop as long as there is a store to rob, so that means we should close all stores in the world to get rid of robbery! And what is happening right now is that they are slowly closing off the internet to stop piracy. Good thinking!

I for one am happily up for paying more internet taxes in order to spare myself from the bullshit proposals of sealing off the internet and selling it in constricted packages to people, just because people download and damage the industry. Yeah the internet is the best way to do piracy today but how is it right to attack internet providers because of a totally legitimate service? Doesn't make sense.

Summary: Piracy is bad, record labels are going out of control, internet is losing its point, buhuuu buhuuu. Rant over

If anyone feels like arguing against me, feel free to do so but quote something and point out what is wrong with it. DON'T read between the lines because there isn't anything there, what I wrote is what I meant.

 

[Moonlight_Seeker]

Well this article is more from the point of view of a musician who wants to get his/her music heard and get money on the long run. Not about the listeners downloading, it just presumes people do that. And I agree with it.

 

[Glenn Fricker]

Ummm.... I just found "Operation Mindcrime" on vinyl! YES!

 

[James Murphy]

agree/disagree... doesn't matter. high-quality, professionally produced, recorded, and mixed music can never be "free", legally (unless done by a band that's already rich bastards off the back of the "old" system). spit and spin on your tethers all you want about this... it will never change the reality.

 

[Moonlight_Seeker]

I personally think that in some years, maybe 20, songs will no longer be a product. The recording will be an investment and the income will come from elsewhere. A pretty good percentage of people will still buy albums but once they are fans. And I think that the people who will get the most negatively affected by this are the bad musicians, the big disc stores, the big record companies and the good sound engineers.Which is not good. So maybe in the future sound engineers will be financially calculated like another musician in a band and have a commission instead? And this is why I think sound engineers should take more importance on the general public's point of view. For example, when we do a gig the name of the sound engineer is never on the flyer. But if the sound engineer sucks the show will suck and vice-versa. So the sound engineer is very important and people should know who sucks and who doesn't. And now I am done exporting. But sound engineers are very in the shadows and I think that might be a not very great direction for the general music quality seeing how things evolve.