I think it's safe to say that we've all pirated music at some point in time.


My position on the whole thing is:

I understand why people do it, and I don't look down on anyone that does do it. But I don't think it justifies the fact that it's being done (if that makes sense). I'm an artist/songwriter myself (or at least, trying to be) and I would hate it if I knew that someone I knew was stealing my work.

I've gotten into huge, huge arguements over this with my group, and friends of mine, and while there are many other factors involved, nothing that I've heard, nothing at all, has qualified as justification, at least in my opinion.

But if I tell them "So let me just snatch away your paycheck next time you get it", I get nothing worthy of a reply.

I think over the years, pirating has made it exceedingly harder for newer artists to come about with their art. Now people have to do things that they may not want to do at all, just to get in the industry, and by the time they're ready to present to the world what they really are about, nobody wants to hear them anymore.

Thoughts?

piracy is not the reason artists cannot make it. it's the reason they do make it in the music buiseness.

now a days the labels only search for nice faces to put onto their songs.
most new artist are being made instead of born an artist.

many other new artist are great from themselves and their greatness is being spread through the internet so they make name and get known everywhere.

the thing you don't know is that for every recordable object being sold(all cd's tapes dvd's etc.) there goes an amount of money to the music organization. all musicians get money from this.

in the netherlands artists rather have it the way it is now then to illegalize downloading. because it's not that more people will buy your cd then.

ever heard story's of famous hollywood people who called the paprazi to tell them where they were, or faking marriage to get a career boost. and two weeks later they are nagging about the same paprazi and to leave them alone.


i understand someone would not want their money to get stolen, but that's not the way to look at it.
fans will still go to your concerts, in fact more people have acces to your music thus there are more fans to go to your concerts.

i'm not trying to attack you or musicians and i could be ranting a bit.
these are my thought and a few facts.

Wait till prix gets here.

Till then, i gotta say that i really don't wnna spend 12.00 on a cd with 8-10 songs. And, i only like 1 or 2 songs on it. The rest is utter crap. They don't make enjoyable cd's anymore like they use to.

Who says they're not really stealing from us ? I don't sell pirated music, in fact if i find the cd to kick ass, i'll even buy it. Most these artist are just doing it for money, not because they have a love of music. Thats why alot of it sucks

and cause KidRock told me to >_>

i agree with invisigoth too.

ok, my opinion on this subject is:

if i had bought the cd, burned it, and gave it to my friends, that would be perfectly legal. so why should it be illegal to do that on a wider scale.

artists aren't losing anything, and we aren't taking anything. except potential. but again the chances nowadays of finding a straight cd rip. so i usually get the cd off of friends when they buy it, so it is nice quality.

as far as the paycheck thing, that is not true, if that analogy were true, pirates would have to be actually taking cd's not just the potential of them buying their product. so if you said how about i stop shopping at where you work.

also, pirating music increases popularity, so that means more concert goers, t-shirt buyers ect...

so thats my stance on the subject:
because copying music on a personal scale, i don't think doing it on a large scale should be illegal. pirating isn't stealing anything, it's stealing potential sales. nowadays the quality of online music is so bad that some people end up just buying the music to get better quality. it increases fanbase.

The music industry failed by not jumping on the file-sharing bandwaggon and pitching in to make services like Napster and Rhapsody and such more popular. I am totally fine with paying 10-15 a month for unlimited music. It makes a lot more sense to me. The only problem is that the DRM then becomes a factor which pits technology companies (microsoft and apple) against each other, which harms the consumer.

People just want to be able to listen to music however they want, but I don't find that most people are entirely opposed to paying for music. As mentioned already, music has been very expensive for a long time, but albums have been diminishing in quality for a while now.

PS, I don't know anyone who would prefer to pay for an iPod full of music over a brand new car. ($30,000).

for $30,000 you can find and buy a new limo >_>

except for those of us who aren't, you know, performing musicians. :/

I'm an electronic music vocalist. As an EDM fan & occasional DJ I do pirate a lot of my music and I love it. But although I support pretty open music as an artist, as a profiting indie musician I realize how hard it is for career musicians who don't have day jobs to make a living, and I feel for them.

I also realize how much the EDM world gets shafted-- I was discussing contracts with a house producer I'm working with and he pointed out that we would make more money if I took one large fixed fee instead of trying to get a percentage of royalties off of the songs because songs get pirated and distributed EVERYWHERE the day a release comes out. The royalties aren't guaranteed to be more than the first day's sales, because after that, anyone can get the songs off the internet.

so, I'm kinda torn. I'm all for freedom of expression, but it's harder to make music your only career because of pirating. I know I never will.

As a person who doesn't sell any of his music, I think pirating is okay. I know it's horrible for the actual artists that create the songs, but these days, people usually think about their own benefits. You get on a computer, and you're able to download millions of songs for no cost whatsoever. Sounds pretty sweet.

Though, just the other day, i purchased two CDs by The Killers. Rather than downloading those songs, i went and bought them because i liked the music on it so much, i thought i would be a true fan and simply get the CD.

It's somewhat mixed for me nowadays. I'm too lazy to get on the computer and wait and wait in order to get the songs i want, and I'm too cheap to go out and by all of the CDs.

Invazn and Lira make a good point...

Would you sell your glowsticking videos?
Should you sell music if it's a passion of yours?

Maybe arts should be hobbies, not main focuses in life.

I don't really feel like expanding a whole lot right now, but it's an interesting thought. I really respect people who dedicate their entire lives to an art, but maybe people should be more well-rounded overall?

any person should be entitled to do for a living what they want.
it's not that someone who sells their music doesn't love music. it's not that someone who loves music wouldn't ask money for it. i find it odd you would bring it up. if it was to speculate i understand. a chefcook loves food but he makes it for you and you find it normal and ok to pay for it.

the point that the people who make music maybe should have a back-up proffesion is a good idea. ive played music all my life and always people told me even if you can make something out of your music make sure to finish your school cause musician or artists have an unstable position in the economical market. it's a fact and a risk that comes with the proffesion.

i want musicians to earn their money because they have the right to earn a living, but sometimes you need to adjust your methods in order to grow with the economy working against it isn't always the way.
it's a matter of request and demand, if the requests change you have to change the demand with it often. and vice versa.

my point a smart musician find an innovative way to go with the flow istead of drown swimming against it

I was going to quotes some posts, but as I read, I'd pretty much be quoting the entire thread.

So I'll just add an example I haven't seen made, but close to. Say you buy a CD and you listen to it, and don't really like it. You wind up never listening to it again. Is that really a good investment? I'd rather download a song to hear it and then if I like it, well... download the rest of the CD lol. But I've found artists where I like alot that I'll go out and buy it even though I already have it. A personal example would be Scrubs Season 8. It isn't out on DVD yet so I downloaded it. But you can bet that when it does I'm going to buy it.

I agree that pirating gives artists more exposure, most djs were "underground" once upon a time.

And pirating isn't the reason it's hard to make it as a musician. It's always been hard. take the 1940s swing/jazz groups struggled to make it to gigs. They barely made enough to buy gas/train tickets to get to the next, and clothe themselves. They never looked any more wealthy than the people they played for. They didn't play for money, they played because they loved the music and the lifestyle. They "made it" because people knew their names, not because they sold records.

As a studying musician, since I started, I've been told that a career in music has always been hard.

thats why bands should do alot of kick ass concerts, and have lots of good merchandise

personally if I really like a particular artist I'll pay for the CD/song to support them, but other wise I think if they offer their music on youtube for free then I'll just take it from there

damn straight. i have made other threads on this.


way i see it, someone is going to get fucked up the ass no matter what. pirating isn't bad. money makes laws, and the people with the money want to keep making more money. so of course they will make laws to make file sharing illegal. so this question comes into play: would you like to take it from behind, or would you rather have the top exec's who get paid millions of dollars per year take it instead?


onto other matters: i don't like paying a shitton of money for low quality music (both in bitrate and talent). i will download something first, and if i like it i will (make an attempt to) buy the cd. nothing wrong with that. downloaded depeche modes new sounds of the universe album. and it was good, so i waltzed into best buy and bought me a copy. now when i downloaded linkin park's minutes to midnight album (lol so long ago), i wasn't very impressed because only about 1.5 of the songs were good. i didn't buy it.


maybe if more people actually started making good music i would buy it



"damages" of piracy are placed somewhere between 1 million and 50 billion dollars per year (not going to site sources because even those have no basis). this is based of an estimate (done by record labels) of what was downloaded and how much.

in reality, its an overestimate, and most of the people that downloaded it illegally wouldn't have bought it in the first place. and besides, nothing is really even being "stolen" in the first place.

studies done by harvard business school professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman Strumpf reveled that there was no connection between falling music sales and the rise of file sharing. They believe that the majority of music file sharers are teens and college students who are "money-poor but time-rich" indicating that the music industry cannot count them as lost sales because they wouldn't have bought the music anyway (http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/4206.html)

stealing takes away, so the original owner won't have it, while sharing allows both the original owner and other people to benefit from it.

and when people get caught, then bull like this happens
http://agonist.org/20090620/1_92_million_f...or_music_piracy
trying to make a statement by ruining a mothers life isn't going to help anyone.


tl;dr: sharing is caring.

Yeah, I understand you, and everyone else. Thanks for the opinions. ^^ I think I can accept it a bit more now, lol.

lol


you are an aspiring artist. just for the record, if you do eventually produce something, and i like it, i will be more than happy to buy it. hope my rant didn't damage your mindset too much.

Exactly my thoughts. There has been SO MUCH music Ive been exposed to through "illegal" means that I would have never known otherwise. I may not buy their CDs but I do if I like it enough, I go to their concerts, I buy their merchandise. Those who don't pique my interest enough don't get my money at their events.

It's like going to a wine tasting or food tasting event... if you like something enough and it's good for your tastes, you are going to go and get some more, right? At least I know I will. Just because I got a taste for free doesn't mean I wont go and get more and expect that free too.

Over half of the electronic artists I've gone out to support I've never bought a CD from, but do have a lot of their music.