Illegal music downloading

[d8g3jdh]

Controversial topic, indeed. I was wondering what everyone thought/thinks of this issue. Thoughts?

[Bob Clayton]

im for it.

[beavrangers]

I personally dont agree to the burning of cds. I download tons of songs onto my computer to listen to them ON THE COMPUTER. When i want something to bring with me, i'll buy the cd (note, i don't own an ipod). You've all heard it before, but buying the CD supports the artist or group, and when ur trying to get into the music industry (which im assuming at least some of you around here are) your gonna want to be able to depend on people and fans to purchase your material so you can make a living.

[BurningSkies]

I'm all for you doing illegal things.

[canopener]

Originally Posted by beavrangers

I personally dont agree to the burning of cds. I download tons of songs onto my computer to listen to them ON THE COMPUTER. When i want something to bring with me, i'll buy the cd (note, i don't own an ipod).

Does the music sound different on the computer compared to "bringing it with you?" It's analogous to "I only speed when I'm late."

Anyway, for the original question, do what you want. Just be prepared to accept the consequences if/when they come around.

[JansenW]

Nothing like musicians not paying other musicians for what is rightfully due to them.

[Mark Latimour]

I wonder if there is any correlation between Behringer fans and fans of downloading illegal music?

[Murf]

I notice lately as well that in America "they're" clamping down on internet sites which host transcriptions, lyrics and tabs as well

I used to download a lot of music (mostly very obscure stuff which I couldnt get on Cd anyway) till I did some work for an originals band who were a great bunch of guys and got seriously screwed royalty wise from illegal downloading of their material (these guys had given up their day jobs to make a go of the music scene and God love em they put their hearts and souls into the project..and they were practically broke money wise) yeah they had a record deal but they decided not to take an advance (If you get signed to a label there is a certain amount of money invested in the "project"..if the band takes a big advance that money comes out of the overall budget for the band which means once the band has taken their big advance and paid for studio time/engineer/producer theres no money left to print the cds and/or get them "racked" (distribution))

For the HUGE artists this dosent mean a whole lot and the illegal downloading is merely an irritation to them and the record company..to the struggling band on an "indie" label its catastrophic.

[Basshole]

Originally Posted by BurningSkies

I'm all for you doing illegal things.

Here, here!

The fact is that the vast majority of artists don't ever see a dime from the record companies, for reasons too complex to explain here. They make all of their money from live performances.

Also, the music industry is a very bad custodian of the body of work that is the world's music. If we had to rely on them for distributing all music, stuff that sells less than 10K units would never get distributed, or ever put back into print. Out of print music would fade into obscurity forever, and be lost to history.

There are things I have found online that I know will NEVER be available again from ANY legitimate sales outlet, online or otherwise. Stuff that would forever be lost if the record companies of the world were the only custodians and distributors of the body of work that is the world's music.

They simply can't be trusted as custodians, because their interests are in conflict with protecting diversity in music. They simply want to sell millions of units of whatever todays pop is.

The top companies like Universal will always make money by selling the pop crap that sells to millions, and little else...but other means of distribution, legal and "grey" must remain available in order to protect the diversity of music available in this world.

My $.02

BTW, I speak from knowledge first hand. Both my parents, my sister, and myself are in the biz...and there's a number of Grammys and nominations in the family.

There's really only about a dozen artists (including Metallica) that rally against downloading. Most artists don't have such good deals and are either for trading, or somewhat ambivalent. They know they'll never see a friggin' dime in royalties.

[lemur821]

I'm not into this whole copyright thing anyway.

[ZombieGhosTrain]

I don't.

I like to have the cd/case etc, something physical, as well as showing respect to the artist. I listen to cd's an infinite amount of times. What else do you pay less than $20 for and receive unlimited hours of entertainment? And it's a pain in the ass.

[flatwounds]

I have no problem with people downloading concerts that have been recorded and are only available from the internet - such as various Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan concerts, where the artist has not officially released the material. But I'm not the biggest fan of people illegally downloading music that is available to buy - such as illegally downloading an official release that is available to buy on compact disc, or legally through itunes.

[canopener]

Originally Posted by Mark Latimour

I wonder if there is any correlation between Behringer fans and fans of downloading illegal music?

Maybe a correlation between the Behringer R & D team and illegal downloads.

[BurningSkies]

Originally Posted by lemur821

I'm not into this whole copyright thing anyway.

As someone who works in copyright...your comment is scary and ignorant as to what copyright does for artists and creators.


The stupid hippy attitude of 'everything should be free' is just selfish.

[superbassman2000]

i don't download illegal music, but i do download taped concerts from bands that are ok with it
of course, the music that i listen to is rarely on those file sharing programs, so i kinda gave up on it
but basshole is right, the musicians don't actually see much money after the cd is recorded, i remember reading an article from a famous producer who broke down the costs and how much the musician actually got after the cd was recorded, i'll see if i can find it...

EDIT: http://www.negativland.com/albini.html

[MJ5150]

It doesn't matter to me where the money goes, it is illegal. It isn't worth it to me to sacrifice my clean conscience over a few tunes.

-Mike

[jonly]

I will download enough of an artist's work to determine if I like them. If I do, I part with my cash.

[Matt Till]

What do you guys think of something like this:

Albums that you can't even buy (they are so rare), downloaded off the net without reimbursing the artist. Now a couple things to consider: YES, technically it's still illegal, but at the same time... if you were to find a copy of this metaphorical album, it would be used, and the artist wouldn't profit.

Yes, you'd have something physical in your hand, and something that was once paid for... but lets say that your chances of finding this are 1 in 5000.

Frankly, if I were this band... lets say a 70s underground band with a minor cult following, I'd love the fact that my obscure music was getting downloaded. If it was just sitting around not making me any money, I'd at least hope a few people were listening to it.

I buy stuff from current musicians I enjoy, I'm trying to keep my main musical spendings local/in the area/at live shows. That's the truest form of support.

As if I hadn't made my stance on the subject clearer: Feel free to click my band link in my signature and download my band's demo for free.

[seriousbob]

I guess I'm a part of the dl'ing generation. As such, I don't really like cds. They're cumbersome, break, scratch and get lost. So I prefer my music on my computer. Lately however, I've gotten annoyed at the quality. Solution: I borrow cds at my library, load 'em in and I have the original sound.

And for every cd checked out, some money goes to paying a copyright fee, which the library pays for using tax money: my tax money! So I don't consider it stealing.

Especially not as a normal cd costs $25 here, and surprisingly it's not much cheaper to download legally. How come it's not way cheaper? I mean distribution is what should be expensive, since the artists sees about $1 from each cd sale. Guess the money is going somewhere else.

[Geoff St. Germaine]

I guess that it depends on the situation somewhat. If people are downloading music to add to their collection when they could be purchasing the CD, then that is wrong. If people download a couple of songs from a new artist/new CD to check it out and then either buy the album or delete the songs then that is probably ok. If someone is downloading music that they cannot possibly otherwise buy even though it is copyrighted material, then I would say that I personally don't feel that that is wrong even though it may be illegal.

I've downloaded plenty of music. This happened when I first got my own computer and instead of ripping all of my CDs, I downloaded the albums. I started out ripping them and then my buddy came by and suggested just downloading them, since I could load all of the albums in the download cue much faster than I could possibly rip them and with very little effort. I don't know if that is or is not technically illegal, but since I've already purchased the music and did this purely for convenience I don't feel bad about it.