Opinions on Music Downloading/Piracy

[Dred]

Im doing a paper on online music downloading and the different arguments presented by trade publications, scholarly journals and online sources, and I'm hoping to use the board here as a source, so.....if you wouldn't mind going into detail with the questions...



1. What are your opinions on music sharing/downloading/piracy?


2. How do you view the opposing (to your own opinions) argument?
a. Do they present valid arguments?
-If so, what are some valid points they make?
-If not, in what way are they lacking and why?



youre feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[Enemy242]

I think downloading music can be good or bad. the bad news is it takes money away from bands that work hard to make thier music and put it out and get a label to sell it. if you download it you don;t buy the cds. however, i got into cob by my brother showing me some of their music and giving it to me (which is the same as downloading but not downloading, i recieved it for free) if he hadn't shown me them i would not have gone to thier concerts and bought HCDR and HB. So i'm kinda split on it, its good if you just download some songs after hearing about them and then like them and support them. but if you call yourself a fan and just download everything they have and don't support them at all then its bad. So its good for just getting the word out and hearing about bands, but its bad if people just take all the stuff and don't support the bands.

 

[M.]

i think the riaa and mpaa are a bunch of greedy assholes.
also, i am very stingy and i know i save lots of money by never buying cds, especially since 15-20 bucks per album is a total fucking ripoff. maybe if cds were like 5 bucks a piece i'd buy em.. but no. each album including printing, pressing, and the case costs under a dollar to produce.

i understand that the riaa wants to hold on to its profits, but squashing p2p with an iron fist is a STUPID strategy (not to mention suing children and old people, f'n morons, dont they have PR people??) and just makes the public hate them, which encourages filesharing/stealing. i do beleive it's stealing, in a way, and i know that work goes into producing and promoting music but i don't beleive that filesharing hurts record sales because downloading entire movies and entire albums is only feasable to those with high speed connections and that is a def minority in the usa. ( i have no sources to back this up but i know its true ). Also, by being able to listen to a couple songs free and conveniently, more people are exposed to more music which in turn produces more record sales - sales that wouldnt exist had the consumer not been able to sample the music. (again i have no sources for this, but i did read once from a reliable news source that when the riaa was freaking out a going to court over p2p, record sales were actually HIGHER than in the past few years even though the usa was in an economic RECESSION. again - f'n morons). So i beleive it's stealing but i dont beleive its wrong, i suppose i just dont care about stangers' profits, especially when these strangers have GIVEN THEMSELVES the image of wealthy, bitchy, corporate assholes. i know, i've seen the ads about the set designers and the little guys being the ones who are hurt, but i still dont feel any guilt for whatever reason, maybe because filesharing is so immensely widespread and i'm just one person. did the industry freak out when vcrs and stereos with tape recorders were available to the public? did that RUIN the industry?

i've wanted to write about this topic before but i could never really get enough thoughts together to form an outline, when you're finished will you post your essay?

hope all that helps you out.

 

[-Gavin-]

My godhonest opinion.


I buy CDs of bands i really love and that i know i will listen to ALL THE TIME. A CD here is like £14 which is $23-25.00, so if i love a band, i buy their albums, if i think they're medicore or pish, i wont.
I download a lot of albums because, to my knowledge, 95% of the money from an album sale goes to the record companies and stuff, which YES produces new bands and stuff, fair enough, but The band it'sself gets nearly all it's income from merch and Touring, and i would much rather spend £100 to fly to london to see a band in concert and buy a teeshirt or two, than i would spend £40 on their CDs.

 

[bobvex]

^thats how i am.

 

[Tut Ankh Amon]

1- i think it's good, especially for new bands.
The fucking labels (metal ones especially) get 99% of the cd-saling profit anyway, so they're not really losing anything. Besides, i wouldn't be one of the greatest metal coinesseurs that i know if it wasnt for P2P networks!

2-The only counter-arguments that i've seen were from record companies, saying that they're loosing tons of money with it. The thing is, it was already mathematically proved by some economy professors that it affects less than 1% of their profit.

If the money of the albums that i bought went DIRECTALLY to the band, then i would NOT download mp3s, unless it was for taking a look at what a band sounds like or something like that, but then deleting it or buying the cd.

 

[oneshotendsthiswar]

I download a lot of albums because, to my knowledge, 95% of the money from an album sale goes to the record companies and stuff.

which is all fine and good....until said band wants to record another album and the record company drops them because they arent selling any albums. bands may only make a dollar or two per album, but believe me that adds up, and the rest of it goes to recouping their DEBT to the record company.


i have no problem with music downloading to find out if you like a band, as much utter shit as the music industry puts in nice little packages i need a better judge of quality than a 30 second sample of the "single". if its quality, and a band i want to support ill buy the album and probably the shirt too. the record industry is running on an outdated model and it sucks, but by not buying the album youre screwing the artist just as much as the label, believe me.

 

[-Gavin-]

Dude, i never said i don't buy Cds for that reason, i said that i download CDs and if i like them i buy them..


If i didn't like it, i wouldn't buy it, only difference is I save money by no buying shite, so i can buy what i like.

Go figure

 

[M.]

The band itself gets nearly all it's income from merch and Touring

i always buy merch when i go to shows

p2p is also great for finding rare and out of print stuff, like old ep's and live recordings and just the other day i downloaded Konami's weird collection of video game music done-again by some kind of metalish band, theyre all insturmentals and they rock and there are two albums of this, it's out of print and impossible to find in stores unless maybe it was a second hand record store in japan :Smug:

 

[Thanatopsis]

I download stuff to sample it, and if I like it I will buy it. I don't keep stuff I don't like so I don't waste money, but I support the bands i do enjoy by buying their stuff. The only trap to fall into is downloading something and liking it and then telling yourself you'll buy it, but then you get lazy or forget or just stop caring and keep it anyway, but that depends you.

 

[murderedbysound]

i am one who cant make a judgement on a 30 second clip that is 64kb in quality. hearing that, i cant make a judgement on that alone, even hearing a song or two might not make up my mind fully. i download and by music the same as Needled does. if i really love the cd i buy it. in essence i would go and see them in concert and by there merch etc. meaning the band gets money no matter what. its funny how bootlegging gets bands popular (and possibly the band that got most popular by bootlegging was none other than metallica) they then turn there backs on the consumer and file suits. but they can do that since it is there music. but with out the consumer they couldnt continue. id also like to add that prices for cds are ridiculasly high and thats also a HUGE reason why i d/l more than buy. paying 16-22$ for a cd is redundant and sheer idiocy. not to mention people do d/l cds to see if they like it.

im thinking on doing a paper on this myself.

 

[-Gavin-]

Best Example:


Dragonforce, back in the day, they put their demo up for free download on MP3.com

meaning people could get into them for free by downlaoding MP3s.

Now they have a MASSIVE UK (and international) Fanbase.

 

[mevyhetal]

1. What are your opinions on music sharing/downloading/piracy?

i have yet to see evidence proving a connection between downloading and major decrease in record sales.

i download often, if i like what i hear, i'll buy it.


2. How do you view the opposing (to your own opinions) argument?

misinformed, or not knowing the facts.

a. Do they present valid arguments?

sometimes

-If so, what are some valid points they make?

can't think of any off the top of my head, but it has happened, i can assure you
-If not, in what way are they lacking and why?

not taking other things into consideration when arguing against file-sharing... for example, the declining annual number of releases within the past several years.

-


you might find these links interesting/useful (if you haven't already):

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/04.15/09-filesharing.html

http://www.unc.edu/~cigar/papers/FileSharing_March2004.pdf <- do check this out