Piracy

[hurlingdervish]

i cant believe how many people still get their panties in a wad over piracy

no one makes money from digital release yet everyone complains that "piracy" is stealing their 10 cents per dollar song.

what does the sp forums think?

theres alot of artists that would still be underground if not for piracy methinks

[Andrew P]

If you really like someone's stuff buy it on vinyl. That's my take. I think cd's are an obsolete music media format, and mp3s have taken their place. I think internet downloading is good for artists if they are solid artists - if they have quality, people will appreciate it and buy the record or go out to see them live. If they just have a lame single that's disposable, people will treat it that way. I think the current media landscape is good for solid artists. It's not good for the major record labels, but that's ok, because we don't need them!

[cartesia]

artists are too caught up in their music being worth something to others..


if people think the music is worth buying, they'll buy it.

if people dont think the music is worth buying, it doesnt make you a bad musician, it just means you're not doing something that doesn't interest anyone else..

so ask yourself,

are you in it to please others? or to please yourself? or to feed yourself?

If nobody buys your music, its not a good reason to stop making it, unless you were only in it for the coin or pleasing others!

I think this can then explain being paid to perform - it fits into the 'pleasing others' part.

[hurlingdervish]

interesting replies indeed

i think you should never make music for any of those reasons completely on there own.
if you are ONLY making music for yourself you are missing out on sharing, music began as a communication device
but if you dont make it for yourself it doesnt sound original
and if you make music only to feed...you may yourself in a desperate position

rather a healthy dose of making it for yourself and sharing with others. and that way the joy you get from both making it and sharing it, could drive you further or to more fun eh?

[cartesia]

I see no problem with someone not being interested in sharing their music,
music does not have to be a form of communication.
As long as it satisfies you, why is there a problem there?

Not all people are social creatures

[PHeMoX]

If you really like someone's stuff buy it on vinyl. That's my take. I think cd's are an obsolete music media format, and mp3s have taken their place. I think internet downloading is good for artists if they are solid artists - if they have quality, people will appreciate it and buy the record or go out to see them live. If they just have a lame single that's disposable, people will treat it that way. I think the current media landscape is good for solid artists. It's not good for the major record labels, but that's ok, because we don't need them!

I totally agree. Ever since I bought a turntable I stopped entirely buying and even considering CD's. I still buy mp3s online because sometimes new vinyl is expensive like a mf, but quite rarely and usually only single songs, not entire albums.

One thing I like a lot about digital distribution is the fact that you can decide to pay only for the songs you actually like.

Example; Black Eye Peas .E.N.D. album, I bought some songs, but not all of them. It costed me about 8 bucks, instead of 15, something like that. That's pretty cool.

I haven't bought a physical CD since at least 2005 or so and the last CD I bought was a very old one for 10 bucks.

[PHeMoX]

By the way, I am very much against illegal downloads. I do think that people should pay for songs if they want to listen to them, but with the whole YouTube thing going on, I don't see why in some cases we should pay for a digital version.

What's the difference between listening to a song through YouTube online and buying the song through iTunes and listen to it on the very same PC? There's a ton of mobile phones that are able to visit YouTube, so the argument that you can load your MP3 onto your iPod only goes so far.

Technically the difference between listening to a radio station or listening to YouTube is more or less zero.

Meaning, what are we paying for except a physical CD disc when we buy music anyways? There's this obvious gap between supporting an artist directly and inevitably making sure a big record label makes millions of them through a killer contract. I am not surprised many people don't want to pay, even though they would like to support their favorite artists.

The system has failed basically and should change for the music industry to survive.

[hurlingdervish]

i dont like buying something that can disappear in a heartbeat...

i like buying cd's/records because you are holding the art in your hand and can put it on the wall or whatever

like im really going to print out the cd jacket for my self??

i think that they should have codes for mp3 backups on cd's AND vinyl

i don't think that beatport/itunes is the way to go

it makes music a disposable product

[hurlingdervish]

As long as it satisfies you, why is there a problem there?

Not all people are social creatures

because if something is worth sharing, isnt it your duty to share it? why deny someone the right to listen to something they might enjoy simply because you want to keep it to yourself?

not all people are social creatures true, but did you ever consider when you are making music you are communicating to yourself in a way? there things that may be misunderstood until they are externalized. i dont consider myself an extrovert but i do feel that playing a song for friends can communicate something that words cant

[cartesia]

I don't believe there is a requirement upon a creator to share their creation..

'denying them the right to listen to it'..
Denying me the right to keep it to myself?

I owe nothing to society.

[hurlingdervish]

I don't believe there is a requirement upon a creator to share their creation..

'denying them the right to listen to it'..
Denying me the right to keep it to myself?

I owe nothing to society.

if you think of it as owing people it, youre missing the point. wouldnt your friends appreciate it? girlfriend? even cats?
SQUIRRELS?

PIGEONS?

[Nation]

Bottom Line is that copyrights need to bee respected. The most recent major revisions to copyright law was DMCA of 2005. One of the important clauses of this act was the Fair Use clause. Fair use is a hairy subject between copyright owners and users. There are good points in the debate on this topic, and I think that all parties will be pleased with copyright law when 'fair use' is reasonably defined.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

[PHeMoX]

Bottom Line is that copyrights need to bee respected. The most recent major revisions to copyright law was DMCA of 2005. One of the important clauses of this act was the Fair Use clause. Fair use is a hairy subject between copyright owners and users. There are good points in the debate on this topic, and I think that all parties will be pleased with copyright law when 'fair use' is reasonably defined.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

Yeah, 'fair use' isn't properly defined at all actually, which is why for some strange reason a guy with a copyright on the name 'Edge' can sue people for any kind of totally unrelated names in which 'Edge' is used. Quite crazy.

Really, there's a lot of copyright abuse going on. In the music world the best examples are people stealing other's work making money of it quite directly. Say a Jennifer Lopez stealing a beat of a rather unknown producer. Sure her producer mangled it up a bit, but it's basically even worse than an individual downloading Lopez her final song for free.

Of course, record labels don't agree.

I don't believe there is a requirement upon a creator to share their creation..

'denying them the right to listen to it'..
Denying me the right to keep it to myself?

I owe nothing to society.

if you think of it as owing people it, youre missing the point. wouldnt your friends appreciate it? girlfriend? even cats?
SQUIRRELS?

PIGEONS?

Yeah, there's that too. Since when are we supposed to pay for a 'license' so we may listen to something? To me it makes sense to pay for something physical and even something digital, so I 'own it', but it's reasonable at worst to also want to physically make back-ups / copies.

If digital downloads don't give me some kind of insurance that I can download it more often (unlimited times, after all according to modern day record labels I bought a license to listen to it, not for a copy that I 'own') if my hard disk gets fried, I don't see why I would even want to pay.

I don't think a digital download is very comparable to a physical CD that breaks either. They hardly ever break or get lost, where a digital download might be accidentally erased because of a hard disk failure or what not.

Somehow the whole thing is very awkward and illogical when you really think hard about this.

[hurlingdervish]

well its awkward because up until now there was

A. Major Labels that people appreciated

and

B. Actually good rock bands that didnt give two shits about having a record as long as the label funded their tour

now its

A. Major labels sign bands no one cares about

and

B. Electronic music and sampling dramatically increasing in popularity.

there are only few good electronic live acts outside of the typical dj and/or rapper on a static recording

the output of songs has gone up 100 fold because of electronic music for better for worse

[Beanz711]

I really like this post. Hopefully more cats let us know what they think.

As for me, Do I download music? Yes. Do I buy music? Yes. I am a DJ and sometimes I need a song that I might now have. If it is a sure crowd hit, I will download it and buy it when I get to a store. I look a t music downloads/youtube as a sample of what I want to buy. It is like test driving a car. If I think the track is worth having, I will buy it. If not, then why am I going to waste my money on it.

Personally I love having the hard copy of my music. I have over 20,000 songs in my music library, most in apple lossless format to ensure the highest quality (I do play on big systems) and I Keep all my cds/vinyls just in case my computer/hard drive decides to delete itself. Not likely, but possible.

The whole music thing has gotten blown way out of proportion. Do you need big record companies, NOOOO. I understand that people gotta eat, but if your music is good and people like it, you will get paid. ( Anyone hear of Joe Budden.... Internet Soljaaa!!) I love music, all of it, anything and everything that has to do with it. I do it for the love, the way it should be done. If I get some money then props to me.

Two wrongs dont make a right, but them big companies are making BILLIONS of dollars and want to sue us for stealing when they do it all the time. And the best part is the big names do it the most. Honestly, my uncle wrote all the lyrics and music for the song "I Just Called To Say I Love You", it got stolen and hey, he didnt have no money to fight it. karma bites you right back in the ass. Now the record companies are going down, and all the people who want to be heard and share music are coming through the woodworks. It's a good day for musicians, bad night for Recod execs.


Music is Love


Beanz