Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Stealing Music: Wrong Or Right?




As I post Eminem's newest song for free below. The irony. Well, this entry comes from the god Michael Arrington over at TechCrunch, I've been meaning to put it up for a week now. But he talks about the argument for free music in rather intelligent terms. Peep the excerpt below or the entire article. I can't take credit for the photo either, he pulled that one, too. Damn it:

...Music used to be so simple. You listened to it on the radio for free, but you didn’t get to say what would be played, and there were lots of commercials. If you went to a concert, you paid. And if you bought a record, tape or CD, you paid. People copied CDs to cassette tapes and passed them on to friends. That was just about as far as P2P music piracy got. Stealing music was when you shoplifted a CD or cassette from the record store, and it was pretty clearly understood that it was “wrong.”

Maybe that’s why so many people who are older than say 30 think that downloading music is ethically wrong. They remember that music is something that you pay for. They still download the music, of course. But they know they’re doing something they shouldn’t be doing.

But if you’ve discovered and come to love music in the last decade, I don’t see how you can be expected to know when listening to recorded music is ok, and when it’s wrong.

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As an independent artist myself, I understand both sides of the argument. I'd like my music to be in the hands of as many people as possible and I know that, until that happens, I need a day job. However, there would come a point in time where I'd like to not have to work that day job and be able to focus all types of attention and money at making the BEST music possible. For me, that involves traveling, talking to people, drinking and in general, living. Maybe the stresses of the job provide that sort of inspiration, but a musician should be able to work for himself and be paid for what he does. Whether that's thru the labels or not, I can't say. Anyone with more money than you and that's willing to help, all good by me as long as their best interest isn't put before mine (sometimes, you have to be selfish).

Let's face it, the age of the rock star is dead, and none of these newbies are likely going to enjoy the same financial success as those that came before them, unless they reach that Kanye/Eminem/Jay-Z stratosphere. And who out there will? Sure we all believe we will, but some want it for the dollar bills attached, not for the fact your music hits more ears. So until something happens like that, you can find me here, blogging, trying to dig up a 9-5 and booking studio time around trips to see my girlfriend and washing dishes. Hallur.

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