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A devastating response to the "free music" generation.

#41
dmusic148 said:
We are back to singing for our supper, and I believe this is how it will stay.
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Ah, but back in the days when you sang for your supper, it was a fair exchange - you sang, and you got supper. Everyone involved knew the deal. Nowadays, you work hard and spend your hard-earned money to make a recording, and all you ask is that if people want it, please buy it. Instead, someone puts your hard-earned recording on a "file-sharing" (we're only sharing! :rolleyes::rollno::scowl:) site, and anyone can download it for free, and you STILL only get supper. I'm so glad that this file-sharing technology wasn't available when my favorite bands were in their prime. I would have hated to have to look for great bands and artists like Parliament-Funkadelic, Stevie Wonder, Bootsy's Rubber Band, Kool & the Gang, James Brown, the Ohio Players, etc., which is what you must do today if you want to find anything approaching the aforementioned bands and artists because music has become so fragmented due to the mess that both file sharing and the music industry have made. If things were like they are now, I might have never heard P-Funk.
 
#42
I think it looks morally and legally pretty black-and-white when you pick the case of the person who has a library of 11,000 mp3s and has only ever paid for 15 albums. And that's common. But when I think about the issue of free music and paying artists, I keep running into grayer areas than that.

Most of the music I have, I got in CD form. But an awful lot of the CDs I own I bought used, at goodwill or yard sales or wherever. Now, I've never heard anyone get on a soapbox about the evils of buying used CDs. I think I'm legally and morally clear because I paid for the music. But at the same time, none of the money I paid for the used CD went to the artist.

I've taken free music off the internet, not from mass file sharing but pulling individual songs from youtube and converting them to mp3. Not 11,000 songs, certainly, but some. I usually burn them to mix disks and play them in the car, because that's where I mostly get to listen to music. So maybe that makes me a pirate.

But the thing is, if a song sinks in as a favorite after a few listens in the car, I often go and buy the whole CD (and not always used, either!). And if I see that the band is coming through my area, I'll buy tickets to go see them and buy the t-shirt at the concert. I wouldn't have done that if I hadn't sampled the songs from youtube. So it seems to me that three or four free songs became what retailers call a "loss leader" that in the and brought me to spend more money on the band than I otherwise would have. With the radio pretty much dead for any music that interests me, and not being able to sit at my computer watching youtube or listening to grooveshark all day, making those mix disks is the only way I have to find interesting bands and wind up supporting them.

I think that, while it's right and good to tell people to act morally, what's really needed is new economic paradigms. It's already been said that concert tickets and t-shirts are much more where the money is rather than album sales. I don't think artists ever made much off records in the early days of the phonograph; rather, having a record was what established your name and made people want to pay to see your show. It's time to be realistic and say that, with the current technology, that's how the market works now and we may as well embrace it (and not overinvest in recordings other than as promotion for shows, perhaps?).
 
#43
I'm sure there were a lot of good points made throughout the article, but when someone who "teaches college students" starts using words such as "wanna" and "gonna" in an article that I'm supposed to be taking seriously I lose interest.
 
#44
My gripe with the article is that, in order to beat his dead horse, the author uses "Free culture" as a concept while "Free culture", in my mind at least, refers to Lessig's Free culture.... which is 10 000 miles away from saying its ok to rip other people's art.
 
#45
CrewsControl said:
I wonder what people here think of the ethics of downloading or copying music that is out of print and unavailable for purchase, though still under copyright protection?
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That's a good question, and points to the difference between what is right ethically and what is right legally. I'd bet that most people on this site who take a stance against filesharing do so from an ethical point of view, but the only real framework we have to deal with it is the legal one.

I'm not saying it's ethically right to take music that isn't available to purchase at all, but it seems like a different case than taking something which you could otherwise pay money for. This is also another difference between computer data and physical objects, which has been discussed many times in regard to this topic.
 
#46
hrodbert696 said:
Most of the music I have, I got in CD form. But an awful lot of the CDs I own I bought used, at goodwill or yard sales or wherever. Now, I've never heard anyone get on a soapbox about the evils of buying used CDs. I think I'm legally and morally clear because I paid for the music. But at the same time, none of the money I paid for the used CD went to the artist.
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As I read the post just prior to yours, this came into my mind as well. Probably half of the CDs I own I purchased used.
Then there is the case where one of my CD books was stolen out of my car. Im sure glad I had already ripped those CDs to my laptop.
 
#47
Did anybody else catch this little gem down in the comment area of the site where the site people are explaining how they are dealing with the huge number of comments?

"If you play bass we delete."

Hey, I know they're trying to be funny, but that hurts a little.

As for the article, it just re-iterates the fact that nothing is really free. Somebody, somewhere pays for it or it stops existing. The Entitlement Generation appears to be h*ll-bent on learning this lesson the hard way. It's the same attitude that expects a six-figure salary job for a college degree in the history of medieval basket weaving. And BTW, the degree was paid for with borrowed money. Welcome to the real world.
 
#48
Unprofessional said:
As for the article, it just re-iterates the fact that nothing is really free. Somebody, somewhere pays for it or it stops existing. The Entitlement Generation appears to be h*ll-bent on learning this lesson the hard way. It's the same attitude that expects a six-figure salary job for a college degree in the history of medieval basket weaving. And BTW, the degree was paid for with borrowed money. Welcome to the real world.
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Evolution of consciousness... adapt or die.
 
#49
hrodbert696 said:
Most of the music I have, I got in CD form. But an awful lot of the CDs I own I bought used, at goodwill or yard sales or wherever. Now, I've never heard anyone get on a soapbox about the evils of buying used CDs. I think I'm legally and morally clear because I paid for the music. But at the same time, none of the money I paid for the used CD went to the artist.
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But that single CD didn't turn into an infinite number of copies that anyone can cherry-pick at will. There's nothing wrong with buying a used item that's already been paid for legally.
 
#54
dmusic148 said:
Dude, I totally get where you're coming from. And I used to be in your camp. But it is what it is. There was a time when recorded music could have big monetary value. That era lasted approximately 50 years. It's over. Technology made it, and technology tore it down.
We are back to singing for our supper, and I believe this is how it will stay.
You can be mad about it, and try to fight it(how?), or you can get on with your life.
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I agree no matter how big you are once music is recorded you are just like the busker with an open guitar case for the movie theatre line crowd. Basically we are all donating money to you as your patron because if we don't want to pay we don't have to.
 
#55
Jhengsman said:
I agree no matter how big you are once music is recorded you are just like the busker with an open guitar case for the movie theatre line crowd. Basically we are all donating money to you as your patron because if we don't want to pay we don't have to.
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Too true. Im the kind of guy who likes to support artists that Im into.
This cool band played the slot after us one night, and man they blew me away.
I felt compelled, and spent $20 on a CD and a tshirt. Im sure I could have downloaded their songs for free if I wanted to, but I didnt want to.

Now that our band has our first album up on itunes Im hoping people feel the same. Its 5 songs (30 min total) at $4.95.
Though, I dont know how much Id mind people file sharing our stuff if it meant that our music got out to more people who it wouldnt have otherwise.
 
#56
Technology has changed many businesses over the years and eliminated many as well. This will likely continue to accelerate. Adapt or die! Anyone know where I can buy a buggy-whip or a residential coal furnace....? Interesting that the number of working artists is down by 25%. Should make for more opportunities for those that stick it out...
 
#57
hrodbert696 said:
Most of the music I have, I got in CD form. But an awful lot of the CDs I own I bought used, at goodwill or yard sales or wherever. Now, I've never heard anyone get on a soapbox about the evils of buying used CDs. I think I'm legally and morally clear because I paid for the music. But at the same time, none of the money I paid for the used CD went to the artist.
Click to expand...

Side note: the video game industry is dealing with this problem right now as well. It's been interesting to see what's being done in those circles since if anything works in either music or games that the other will adopt it quickly afterwards.
 
#59
FutureTense said:
Side note: the video game industry is dealing with this problem right now as well. It's been interesting to see what's being done in those circles since if anything works in either music or games that the other will adopt it quickly afterwards.
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Theres another one... I buy all my PS3 games used (at least until GTA5 comes out).
Im not sure if people can copy these discs, though (perhaps if the PS3 is modded), and I cant play the games on my console without them.
 
#60
I get in trouble with my wife weekly because of my addiction to buying new music. When I was younger I couldn't afford new music and now that I'm older I find I buy at least 2 new albums a week to the tune of 20 bucks. I enjoy supporting people trying to make their love their job. I just bought three albums of a TBers band last week. If you dig the music you should deffinitely shell out the money.
 

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