The Great Downloading Debate

D.Ingram

D.Ingram

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Mar 17, 2008
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Sheffield, United Kingdom.
Inspired by many conversations with Ol and countless other people - most notably Dan Wainwright, who's made some good points, plus the whole debacle on leaking albums online before general release.

Downloading - what're your thoughts on this in general?

Taking the business side out of it for a second, I'm all for legal downloading (stuff like Amazon MP3, iTunes etc. that you pay for), there's no reason not to be. Illegal downloading however, I'm mixed on - downloading albums that're readily available or aren't even released yet is something that I rarely ever do. If I commit such an act, 99% of the time I'll buy it (unless it's shit, in which case I'll delete it), but then again one would argue that if an album is obscenely expensive to track down on CD - as most albums I enjoy are - then it could be justified to download it. Invocator and Protector are two that spring to mind for me here, since I downloaded both Weave the Apocalypse and A Shedding of Skin ages ago simply due to how expensive second hand CDs were (up to $300 in some cases). However, I managed to recently get both on CD because I fucking love those albums.

An odd position to have for sure. What do you lot think?

Again, taking the business side out of it for a bit since it only starts arguements and complicates the shit out of things! :lol:
 
Leaglly downloading from Amazon, Itunes etc. is fine with me but I rarely do it. I only do it if theres just a single song I want, not an album.

I used to download illegally all the time. I have stopped that now. I then went to downloading and seeing whether I like it or not; deleting if I don't or buying if I do. Now I stay away from all illegal downloading and just youtube it all as everything is put up there. I have no problem with people downloading just to see if they like it or not but I don't like having anything to do with illegal downloading now
 
I download lots of music illegally. But as a big fan of physical product, if I really like an album and listen to it a few times then I will buy it afterwards. I see no point in wasting cash on an album I might not like when it's easy to listen to it first, I'm not made of fucking money! That's the world we live in now. The internet has changed the game. It might upset some people but they're going to have to get over it or they're going to be annoyed every time an album leaks! What's the point getting upset about it? You're just setting yourself to be kicked in the balls every single time...

Also, I have hundreds and hundreds of CDs, and I'm running out of space in my life and I do a radio show every week where I play 20+ bands, if I have to buy 15 new CDs a week for that then 1) I'm going to die from having no money and 2) I'm not going to fit in my living room any more...
 
I simply cannot afford even a fraction of the music I want to listen to. Before I moved out, I used to spend most of my money on CDs, but now I have bills and shit to pay, I can't really afford to do that any more.But if I really like a band on record, I will make sure I pay to see them live, and maybe even buy a t-shirt. The artists get more money from it that way anyway.

My views on illegal downloading are somewhat controversial. I don't believe that musicians should be looking to make money from their art. Music is a hobby, and you should only be doing it for fun. If you're not, you're in the wrong game. Bands should be more pleased that someone has listened and liked their music than whether or not they paid for it. 99% of musicians aren't able to live off their music and work other jobs, and most of them are fine with that, because they are still able to do what they love in their spare time. You shouldn't really expect any more. Fair enough if bands can get enough people willing to pay for their music to live off of it, but they shouldn't complain if they aren't able to

Nowadays I illegally download pretty much everything I listen to. It doesn't make me feel guilty, I'd want people to do the same if it was my music.

It really wouldn't bother me if we end up with a music industry with no labels. Nowadays most amateur musicians have recording equipment in their homes, and a record can be made without financial backing from a label.
 
i used to download all of my music. but as soon as music became more important to me i started to buy records. i acknowledge that digital music is handy but it has zero charm.

i always use youtube to find new music. like many others said already: when i like it , i'll eventually buy it.

as for leaks: i recently downloaded Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn Of Events and Machine Head - Unto The Locust because i wanted to hear those albums so bad! i knew that i would buy them anyway so then i think there's nothing wrong with downloading a leak. I didn't download FST though, since i already heard half of the album and the release is just a few days from now.
 
Well, I download albums, simply because A) I can't afford all the albums I want to listen to and B) there's indeed lots of stuff that's hard to get out there. Most of the time, I'll try to support the artist in any way I can, specially if they've released a high quality product (which is something to look for, when you consider the amount of shit released everyday), but it has to be something that really stood for me, be it for the music, or as Steven Wilson has stated, the presentation of the albums (this is more important than you think, at least for me). I've also never downloaded an album from a Costa Rican without buying it later.
 
When I was younge, and jobless, illegal downloading is where I got all my music from, but now that I have a job I see no reason to do that any more. I MUCH prefer having the physical cd.


The only reason I listened to the leaks of A Dramatic Turn of Events and Five Serpent's Teeth is because those have been my two most anticipated albums is a long time, and I already had them on pre-order.
 
Got a Zune pass. $15 a month unlimited downloads plus I get to choose 10 songs to keep permanently. The selection is surprisingly varied and it is interesting what is available and what isn't. I imagine it has a lot to do with the various record labels.

One of the guys from Lazarus AD posted a blog about this topic a few months ago. In a nutshell he basically said he doesn't give a shit how you get the music, just buy the tickets to see the band live and buy a t-shirt to support the band.
 
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