The Death of Music, or is it?

Being that this more or less, is in fact a musically themed forum. I have decided to bring up the topic of Musical Copyright or in laymen's terms, downloading music off the Internet for free.

I honestly feel that it is cruel to the artist and should be illegal. Yes I know that stealing music is indeed illegal but the government does little to nothing to enforce it, and because of this new age of technology, there is no longer a need to buy more then one CD of any artists music to be shared across the entire world.

On one hand I want to say that I would buy Cd's of my favorite bands just to support them, on the other hand....Its free and easy...Its not frowned upon by society and I don't really have the funds to afford all the music my heart desires...but with limewire I can get any song. You can call me a hypocrite and I will gladly succumb to the charge, but in general in this day in age its almost pointless to buy Cd's other then as a good gift.

any thoughts?

Yes, I'm completely 100% against stealing music. But, I have found songs avaliable for download that I've put on my iPod, but it's not because I don't want to buy the CDs. Just a couple days ago I found the song "The Wilbury Twist" by The Traveling Wilburys. I downloaded it, but once again its not because I wouldn't buy the CD, its just that its not avaliable. And if you ever come across one, they're like $70 because they're out of print. I didn't get it from Limewire though, because I've heard you get really bad viruses. I got it from a Beatles files community where people upload Beatles and Beatles related songs for others if they can't get them.

I know none of that justifies the act, but I just keep telling myself "it's only until I can get my hands on the CD or album" Because that's true.

Technology is such a curse, really. I'd trade all this for Records and Record players anyday.

There really is no justification for stealing music. Just because something is possible to do or easy to do, doesn't make it the right thing to do.

Kids generally don't have a lot of money to spend on music and with most CDs (here in the US) costing in the $20 range, I can understand the temptation, but...

When I was a teenager and we had only vinyl records (which I still love), we had to save our money to buy the music we wanted. That only made us appreciate it more. Think of all the people with boxes of well-kept LPs 30 years later! Those records were IMPORTANT to us!

Also, people should be paid for their work. A musician or artist is no different from anyone else who works for a living.

I have often bought multiple copies of CDs that I like so I can give them to people I think might enjoy them. This is a great way to get the music that you love out there to your friends, and also to support the musicians whose music you love.

Ok...I'm stepping off the soapbox now...

I havn't bought a CD for the longest time... I really do prefer walking down to main street and buing some vinyls instead!


Of course, I have limewire and illegally download music and burn the occasional CD and stuff like that, who doesn't? I never buy CD's, but I buy lots of records!

besides, I'd say a good 90% of the songs on my computer I have legally in one way or another.

I agree. Nobody has morals these days. One of the reasons I want need a time machine.

Now, ive been thinking allitle...and it occurs to me that this may be a good thing. With the death of paying for music we can get rid of all those artists that are just in it for the money. And perhaps we will have quality music because of the lack of pay for artists. There will always be new music and new artists to perform it, but this way it will only be the artists that want to play thier music over everything...and not just the bands that are looking to make big bucks with their catchy power keys(aka fall out boy).

I think we've got to see that the artists are paid. Plenty of starving musicians out there; let's not make it worse for them by cutting off their revenue source. The system may be corrupt but until we have another, I think we can't expect our musicians to do it ONLY for the love of the music. They've got to make a living. They can't depend solely on concert revenue, either; if they did that we'd none of us be able to afford to go to concerts anymore. (Concert tours used to lose money; they were regarded by their record companies are a necessary expenditure to create publicity for the album release. Now guys like the Rolling Stones throw together an album just to give them an excuse to go out and milk the public for more concert-ticket wealth.)

I'm in favor of paying 99 cents for a song on iTunes, because then you don't have to fork over the whole $18 for a CD that has only one or two good tracks. I think this saves the consumer money and keeps artists on their toes. Back in the vinyl days (yes, I'm from that era too) lots of those cynically cranked-out LPs had loads of filler tracks -- I remember squatting besides my little folding record player trying to place the needle on the precise spot on the LP so I could listen to the one track I loved and not have to listen to the rest.

If I can't find a tune on iTunes, I will download it from Limewire, but I always regret not being able to see that the money gets to the original artist. If an album is available from a regular seller, and I know it has several good tracks, I will buy the whole CD. I hate buying them on eBay just to save a buck, because then NONE of the money gets into the artist's pocket. I only buy out-of-print records there. I do trade bootlegs with other fans, but generally only for the few artists I adore, and I've already bought everything of theiers that's available from regular commercial sources. If they released live recordings of their concerts, I'd buy them rather than bootleg them.

Sometimes I burn compilations of various songs I like and give them to friends. Yes, this illegally reproduces several tracks that my friends haven't paid for. But I figure that's a way for me to expose a fellow music fan to new artists -- and often they wind up buying records by that artist as a result. I'm just doing a little grass-root PR, that's all.

Another thing: when you download -- illegally or legally -- you don't get the great album cover art and liner notes. Album cover design is a huge element of a record's "message." (After all, our own Klaus designed some of the greatest album covers ever.) Sometimes I've downloaded an album and then wound up buying the CD anyway just to get the cover photography and the liner notes.

Holly, a very good point! One of the things I miss about LPs is the great covers. A CD cover just doesn't have the same impact. But I do like to get the cover art and liner notes also.

Speaking of vinyl, it seems to be making a comeback. When I was in Austin in July I spent a lot of money at Waterloo Records! All vinyl. I have bought two current releases in vinyl. One of the LPs I bought is by an Australian band called Jet (borrowed from the Wings song). And interestingly enough, they also 'borrowed' Klaus's b/w line drawing Revolver cover idea for their cover. Take a look:



Here's a review:
Jet - Get Born Review
These guys revel in the old school, from the band name (thank you, Paul McCartney), to the booklet art (thank you, Klaus Voormann, for the "Revolver" cover) to Jet's earlier "Dirty Sweet" EP (thank you for the title, T-Rex). Where AC/DC has the brothers Young and the Kinks have the battling brothers Davies, Jet, too, has brothers at its core: the Cesters, Nik on guitar and Chris on drums.


Hey, they mention the Davies brothers!
Also, I'm impressed...they spelled Voormann right...!

Very interesting!

This is a little off topic, but I wanted to share the email I got from a company called CD Baby when I ordered a CD from them:

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with
sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure
it was in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over
the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money
can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party
marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of
Portland waved 'Bon Voyage!' to your package, on its way to you, in
our private CD Baby jet on this day, Sunday, October 22nd.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did.
Your picture is on our wall as 'Customer of the Year'. We're all
exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

It just makes me happy to buy music from a company that isn't a faceless corporate monolith. Give these people your business whenever possible!!

Holly,

That's really cute. I have never seen that before.

CD Baby is a great place for indie music...things you can't find in the regular stores.

BTW, Tower Records is going out of business. I'm bummed because we have a large store near us and it's where I've bought a lot of music over the years.

I wonder if MP3's are to blame?

Oh my gosh, Holly! That's SO CUTE!!

It reminds me of this Coca-Cola commercial I saw once. Some guy put a coin into a Coke vending machine and then they showed the whole process inside the vending machine. There were all these strange little critters inside and they made sure the Coke was perfect and everything. Then they all kissed it goodbye at the end.

It was a lot cuter than that sounded...but it was hard to explain!! lol

I just heard about Tower closing today, and I'm bummed. I'm sure MP3s and downloadable music are largely to blame; also on-line sellers like Amazon and CD Universe etc. When I'm struck with the desire to buy a new record, I'm more likely to go on line, whatever time of day or night, and buy it then and there. It only takes a day or two until the CD arrives. However, there's nothing like the experience of leafing through the bins, getting inspired to buy something -- looking over the cover art, reading the song lists -- and going to the listening post to sample something I haven't yet heard. I rarely listen to radio anymore, which used to be where I found about new music, so poking around a record store was a great way to expand my musical horizons. The fun of going home, ripping the plastic wrap off the CD (or, in olden days, vinyl LP), and playing it RIGHT THEN made buying music a special experience. I'm sad that Tower is closing. It could be just bad corporate financial management, but i fear it's about changes in the music industry.

I agree for the most part. Occasionally I download single songs, but the only times I've ever downloaded a whole album, are albums you can't get anymore. Like Tory said with the Travelling Wilburys. Obviously, if I was ever to find a Wilburys record or cd in a store, I would buy it, but they're out of print and so next-to-impossible to find. And even when I download single songs, I usually end up buying the whole album. Or they're like... bootlegs, which obviously are wrong in a different way, but even if I found them at a store or something, they still won't support the artists. It's still bad, but I do still support the artists by buying other albums and stuff. I really hate when people download all their music illegally. It's disrespectful, especially since you'd be downloading music. On the other hand, people sell cds on eBay, and none of that money goes to the artists, so I guess you're still not supporting them and... it's confusing. I just try my best to do everything legally, of course. Now that absolutely everyone uses the internet, especially for music related purposes, there are a lot of things that are shakey on moral/legal ground. Ugh.

let me just add something...from another point of view
so we get different ideas and opinions^^

of course we all want to support the artists we love but we don't realize that if you buy albums, records etc. most of the money goes to the record company.
the artists hardly get to see the money which the companies earn by selling records.
but it's a matter of fact that most of those musicians earn money by performing concerts. thats where they make the real money and that's also where we like our favourites best: on stage.

albums and singles are most likely nothing but promotion for the bands (kinda).

btw- sry for being late

[Sorry I've haven't logged on in AGES....]

I've just read a book by Greg Kot called Ripped that's all about how new artists are using the internet to find other ways of making money without being dependent on the record companies. It's intriguing.