Free music.

[crows]

Recently, I've gotten in conversations with a few friends (including alaskanmermaid and vayleen) about trading/downloading music for free. Ethical, non-ethical? There are all sorts of opinions out there ranging from 'why the hell not' to people who've gotten rid of anything they didn't pay for out of guilt. That said, free channels of acquiring music have lead to me buying more music in the last year than I ever would have otherwise. A lot of it is from Pandora (free customizable internet radio - if you're not familiar, get that way: http://www.pandora.com) which faced some heat last year because various factions have been pushing for the taxes and royalty costs on that sort of thing to be a lot higher. But being able to hear new artists in a way that's related to what I like listening to, and get a feel for different albums, makes me very willing to pop open Amazon.com and purchase some music (I buy their MP3 albums; I prefer this to iTunes because they're unlocked but the price is comparable). Right now, I'm downloading a Kings of Leon album based on one guy I kindof know mentioning it, which caused me to snag a tune off of alaskanmermaid's computer which I think she downloaded from a fan mix somewhere. I posted this to a comment in her journal at some point, but, really the way I feel about distributing music for free? If an artist reaches more ears and receives more playtime, they're much more likely to be able to continue making a living from their art in this day and age, where access to information of all varieties is as fast and as cheap as it is. So if you're feeling weird about your free music, support the artists you love monetarily where possible (be it buying albums, t-shirts, concert tickets, or whatever), and share, because chances are all those other people you're sharing with are going to eventually do the same. Yes, I know, there are always people out there who won't. But they won't regardless.

Lastly, anyone have any recommendations for me? I like all sorts of things. We should trade.

Comments

[wild-eagle.livejournal.com]

I don't pirate directly off the 'net anymore just because I don't care to be sued by organizations with bottomless pockets. Personally, I'm of the opinion that culture should belong to everyone, so if record labels can't figure out how to join the digital age in a way that's good for consumers, themselves, and the artists, then they shouldn't be surprised when work by their artists is pirated.

Your other friend is also right about how most artists make their money live and get practically nothing from sales. But it's even worse than that for artists. Read this article about how the RIAA had a staffer change a law in the dead of night before it was approved, changing how music copyright worked forever:

http://weeklywire.com/ww/08-28-00/austin_music_feature.html

If there was one thing that caused me to believe that the major record labels do not, in fact, give a crap about artists as anything other than a commodity, it was this. This is why I don't buy music anymore. Just thinking about it makes me mad again. Just imagine if this happened to another form of art; say, a publishing company did it for written works.

[incommune.livejournal.com]

Publishing art in any format is an extremely dodgy process. Copyright law is ridiculous in all its forms, pretty much... if you want your work to have a chance at wide distribution, almost your only option is to get yourself into a situation where what you have created no longer legally belongs to you.

Now, that's some shit, right there.