There is no easy way to start this article…oh wait, yes there is, downloading music without purchasing it later is illegal, immoral and downright disrespectful to the artists that are willing to put their careers on the line to make music for a living.
Am I being a bit crass with my opinions in this article? Yes, but this is an editorial and I have a point to make, so why beat around the bush? Downloading music, be it in the iTunes format, mp3, wma, ogg, or any other downloadable format is perhaps the easiest and most functionable modern format for acquiring your preferred songs, however, there is NO difference between going into a store, picking up a CD, pocketing it, and walking out, and downloading music without paying for it. Now, I will be honest here, I am a self professed music junky, and in order to keep myself up to date with the latest and greatest, I couldn’t hope to pay for all the music I want to listen to all at once, so I download illegally. Is this morally wrong? Perhaps, I am not going to be a hypocrite and profess how I am above the law in some fashion, however, there is a key difference between myself and others; I make sure to buy a few CDs every month of albums I downloaded to add to my collection. To further the endeavors of making myself pay for music, when I purchase an album, I delete that album from my computer which compels me to return to my ever increasing CD collection in order to get my proper fix for the day.
Few people truly understand how much downloading music illegally can effect people. I have heard countless individuals in person and online who feel they are the digital Robin Hood for stealing from the rich record labels who leech off of the common guy by releasing digipaks and similar artists who plague radio stations. My response to this, is go fuck yourselves…seriously, especially when it comes to metal. The truth is, most of these bands you fail to support cannot play music for a living, but rather have to work their asses off at a fulltime job to even maintain being on a halfway decent record label because they don’t make enough money on record sales even when it sells well, because these indie labels gobble up most of the profits to keep their company afloat. Even bigtime record labels like Roadrunner, Metal Blade and Century Media have to promote popular records fulltime (i.e. metalcore and brutal death metal) in order to have the cash to promote up and comers. You put the entire industry in a tough situation by not giving them their 10-15 bucks. Hell, even buying a used cd is fine (you can get some cheap shit on Amazon if you bother to look), but it seems even dishing out a few bucks is tough for some people.
I graduated with a BS in computer networking, so I am not ignorant to the advancements in digital hardware and software, where you can listen to countless full albums on your phone, however, the human element is still there, and will forever be there. If you don’t recognize that there are people who create, produce, package and market these songs you listen to on a daily basis, you are only hurting your music, especially if it is independent. Use your brain, buy your music if you enjoy it, even if it takes you awhile to get through that pile of mp3s you have like myself.
Links to great sites that may help you turn to the ways of the Jedi:
www.last.fm (great site for exploring your musical tastes for free)
www.pandora.com (another site similar to last.fm)
http://musicdownloads.walmart.com
www.lala.com (cd trading service; if you get bored with your collection, trade them in for some new ones!)
Recent Comments