Downloading Music off the internet

[Heaven's Cloud]

[color=indigo]I have always thought of file sharing programs like Kazaa, Napster, Aimster, and the rest, to be a double edged sword.

Kazaa has introduced me to a lot of bands that I would not have otherwise listened to. One example is NIN. I downloaded a few songs off of the internet a couple weeks ago. I actually do the same with nearly every band I hear about on the boards (or at least the ones that I am interested in). However, after sampling the music I could easily download the rest of the album, I have a highspeed connection, it would only take a few minutes. For some reason I never do though. I always end up buying the CD's...AFI, the Pixies, the Flaming Lips, All the friggin Cowboy Bebop Music...the list goes on and on.

I guess when it comes right down to it, I don't mind borrowing the music, and occasionally stealing it (hey, some of the music I have downloaded is pure crap), but I feel that if you enjoy an artist to the extent of liking multiple songs, you owe it to them to buy the record. That way they continue making good music and Justin Timberlake gets booted out of Hollywood on his rump.[/color]

[James]

[color=#808080]I guess I'll add my thoughts here.

As I said to Semjaza over AIM, I do download MP3s on rare occasion. If I like the song, I buy it.

I don't like the idea of downloading huge amounts of MP3s and burning them onto discs, without ever giving artists their due income. In a legal sense, it's stealing. And it's something that I personally would never do.

The reason I like MP3s is because they allow me to sample new forms of music; and have access to music that I may never normally have. I use MP3s as a tool for discovering new artists and sampling new sounds. But that's all I use it for. If I find something I like, I will most likely buy the artist's album as soon as I can afford it.

I find myself frequently buying CDs and then deleting the MP3s on my hard drive. I think it's the fair and honest thing to do.

Forget any gripes you have with the recording industry. I think it's fair to say that many artists get a raw deal. But why compound that by stealing their music? I don't give a stuff about the industry executives and I accept the fact that I can do little to change the situation. But by stealing music, I am basically only enhancing the problem -- it makes CDs more expensive and it creates further hardship for our favourite music artists. So why add to the problem? Go out and buy some CDs with your hard earned cash and reward your favourite artists for their hard work. They produced a song that you like and you should pay for the privelege of owning their art.[/color]

[GinnyLyn]

[i]Thank you.[/i]

James got my whole point across (which one? The, um, one I was getting to. ^^).

[Manic Webb]

Can I get a show of hands?

How many of us here would honestly just [i]not buy the CDs anyway[/i], even if we had no way of getting mp3s?

Personally, I don't buy CDs any less now than I did before I started download mp3s. Back before I'd even heard of Napster, you could count my CD purchases per-year with one hand.

In fact, if you took away all of the file-sharing networks, I'd just go back to either taping songs off of the radio or dealing with not having the CD. Nothing short of [i]a wad of cash[/i] can make me buy more CDs. I just don't have the money for it. No job. Stores don't like to interview me. And either way you slice it, I've never downloaded more than 3 songs from one album.

[Semjaza]

Despite the fact that I know a good deal of people have no way of getting these CDs, I do really think the majority of people who use such programs honestly don't have much of an intention to buy those CDs in the first place. Certainly, very few people I know personally do.

Go through people's list on Kazaa. They don't own one or two songs from an artist on average... some of these people have 40 or so songs by one artist, and you can tell very easily that they are tracks they downloaded. I know people that do that, and they don't buy these CDs.

I have no problem with people downloading mp3s in general... which probably didn't come across. My main problems are two things:

The first, the fact that people think not buying these CDs is somehow letting them stick it to the "man" in some form. That's BS.

The second, I mentioned... I honestly don't believe a very large amount of people would buy the CDs even if they could (unless they seriously had nothing else to do with their cash). Even some of the posts in here imply that to me.

The simple fact is that when someone can get something free, they see no reason to pay for it... especially considering how readily available this is. It's like that for anything, and in a sense I can understand it.

Many people wind up hitting FTPs and queueing seriously something like 20 albums to download overnight. They have no plans of buying anything. Obviously this is more severe, but it just doesn't end on Kazaa or those other file sharing programs.

Any moron can get stuff off Kazaa. I know people who [i]don't even know what an MP3 is[/i] that download off of it.

Anyway, people who download some stuff for reasons like James or Endymion... I have very little problem with that in moderation, especially if it's used to pick out possible CD purchases... however, if you can get one song free, why not just get them all free and forget about it? Especially since nearly every burning program in existance can make an audio CD out of MP3s easily.

I don't know. I think that if you like the music, you owe the band to show it by buying their material. The industry itself has nothing to do with that decision.

Edit: TN brought up the point of concerts and such... they don't get all the money from that either, so what's the difference in the end? Besides, if someone won't even drop $15 for a CD, I doubt they'll be willing to drop the $30 to $50 that larger band's concerts cost on average.

[vegeta rocker]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Transtic Nerve [/i]
[B]And chances are, that was a bootleg. [/B][/QUOTE]

why is there a chance it was a bootleg? I bought it at Planet Anime, besides it came in a crate with other cd's and with a promotional t shirt apparantly.