Music Piracy

[cereal]

I think music thats freely available can only be good for the artists themselves. i'm certainly pro downloading...I know it might be a hard concept to grasp, how can sumthing free be good for the musicians who make money off CD sales but fact is, musicians dun make money off CD sales..the record labels do, the musicians juz take cents off their royalties..so by having their music available freely, there will be more global outreach for people to access their music.

The internet is a godsend for the independent musician, it certainly puts the middlemen (the lables,distributors etc) out of the picture and allows them to have a direct reach to their potential audience.

"But since musicians are alredy struggling to make money off their CD sales, wun downloading hurt them even more?".....IMO this is a narrow minded point of view, in the long run what musicians really want is to have more people know abt them and their music, so if i download a track off BAND Z off some P2P and i get hooked onto the track, it certainly arouses my interested in that band. Prompting me to find out more by visiting their website, buy their CDs, merch and go to their shows if there is one. Downloading might appear to be a double-edge sword to some but i believe there are more pro than cons.

p.s dun you notice its only the record execs and people in suits and ties who are the only ones who cry hoo-hah over this downloading issue, you certainly dun hear the musicians point of view

 

[lars_ulrich]

might i remind you that it was lars ulrich of metallica who headed the war on napster

 

[cereal]

lars ulrich was a musician? Last i heard he was an evil danish guy who had tyrannical control over his band,their members and the empire that was Metallica...i believe if Napster came out while Metallica was recording Ride The Lighting...he certainly would have played devil's advocate wouldn't he.

Btw if you look closer to y more and more people are downloading music more than buying albums..its because of the quality of music itself. Its has always been this case, person discovers a new artist on MTV or radio,likes the song..goes out to buy the album only to find out only 1 good song on that album that he/she likes and discovers they have wasted $18 on that CD.This scene had been repeated thousands of times ard the world ( cmon even the most hardcore metallica fan wld find "kill em all" a major let down).

So when napster came..it certainly changed how the world viewed on buying music. "hmmm..i like this artist, maybe i download 1 more song and if thats good, i will definitely buy that album"...or "wow..that whole album was awesome, but i can't find the older ones..i guess i'll juz go out and buy it, and probably add a DVD too"...how many times does this sound familiar.

btw the record label themselves have changed their outlook on music downloading..charging them per song download rather than buying the whole album...a $1 per song is certainly reasonable to 90% of us...unless of course ur a music pirate in PROC and need to pay off ur porsche bank loan. Juz that it hasn't caught on yet..esp in Singapore where buying things over the Net is not yet the norm compared to Europe or the States.But things will change surely, juz have to accept the fact and go with the flow.

 

[cereal]

this might be slightly OT..but its good reading...an essay on "Why CDs are so expensive?"..check out the link

http://www.negativland.com/minidis.html

 

[seekz]

aiyah. boils down to the support for the band/artist you love lah.
If you just download the music, instead of buying you can only be considered as someone who appreciates the music the band is making, and not really a fan that supports the band/artist.

No fans = no artist.

Since day one, back in the days of the good o'll cassete player already ppl can DUB tapes and sell as pirated copies. It will go on forever one lah.

I bet even if you download 4 gigabytes of mp3s, you'll only listen to those same "favourite" few most of the time. So its not like you've slashed the band's/artist's profits by a huge margin for keeping songs thats you're not listening in your computer.

if fact i feel that with the files so readily available, artists these get much more coverage than they deserve. The real bastards are ppl who take Mp3 and sell....

 

[anep]

if fact i feel that with the files so readily available, artists these get much more coverage than they deserve. The real bastards are ppl who take Mp3 and sell....

this i totally agree.

 

[lars_ulrich]

i believe that napster came out during ride the lightning, there wudnt be any metallica today, or many other great bands for that matter. and no u are wrong when u say that lars controls metallica. u obviously dont know much about metallica.

oh and cmon man how in the world can kill em' all be a major letdown? how can it be a letdown at all? every hardcore metallica fan in the world would definitely be calling for you head. any metal fan for that matter.

napster certainly changed the way people got their music and i think that as long as u pay for your music, you're doing no wrong. and nobody shud give the excuse that they find the album in stores. theres always amazon which has just about everything.

 

[cereal]

eh..my major apologies to all metal fans here...i got kill em all and st anger all mixed up when i said kill em all was a major letdown, was refering to st anger. didn't mean to offend anyone

 

[Mobius]

People who dload music all know its illegal but still do it cos the temptation of getting free stuff is always there..

 

[lars_ulrich]

eh..my major apologies to all metal fans here...i got kill em all and st anger all mixed up when i said kill em all was a major letdown, was refering to st anger. didn't mean to offend anyone

ah now you're right. st anger was indeed a major letdown, i think maybe only frantic and stanger were reasonably good attempts at writing a song. but i wudnt say i wasted my money on it. the dvd which was included was pretty kick ass. seeing them play all the st. anger songs was quite interesting. and thats what everyone else is doing... including bomus dvds, so that people actually buy the cds and not download it off the net.

 

[hofner]

no matter what , there will always be a romance in the retail experience that will never wane.

 

[turbochicken]

all's been said.
but i agree with: there's a pirate in everyone.

though i feel there's another condition / factor to it: there are good days and bad days. on good days, you might feel richer or more righteous and choose to go original. on bad ones, the pirate gets the the better of you.

that's for me, at least.

 

[sanXp]

might i remind you that it was lars ulrich of metallica who headed the war on napster

Might I also remind you Metallica first spread their songs on demo tapes that were dubbed freely, almost the same way independant artists are doing it on the internet today. And might I also remind you Lars decided to drop his charges against napster at the end because he realised what he is doing is affecting Metallica's image as the people's metal band. Going after napster effectively made Lars a hypocrite.

 

[lars_ulrich]

yes metallica did spread their music thru demo tapes in the early days. and lars always said that they went after napster not bcos he was against downloading or free music but because people tried to fuck with metallica and they didnt like not having CONTROL over what they were able to do. and the thing is that people who said "fuck you for doing that" back in 1999-2000 are actually coming up to him and saying "well, maybe you were right". metallica still is the fans' metal band and it always will be. and lars never was or is a hypocrite. since when did standing up to what u believe in make u a hypocrite? is this effect of all the propoganda? standing up to ur beliefs=hypocrite. looks like certain people have succeeded in makin singapore the "perfect state".

 

[azacamis]

if downloading is a means of trying, then IMO that is ok because if you don't like the songs, you will delete it. But if you like the album then go buy it. Not buying in this case = stealing. Worse is those who burn for others and the worse of the worse are those who charge for it.

 

[lppier]

I do download mp3s, but I buy cds that I like or bands that I support.
But I do realise that more often than not, casual listeners do not buy cds now! I was a bit angry coz that day I went out with my friend, and when I said I am buying the new Coldplay and Jason Mraz cds when they come out to support, he looked amused, as if I'm stupid to do so. (download lar!)
MP3s opened up my world of music and gave me more access to music I wouldn't have discovered if I had stuck to cds.
But! It means no revenue for artists.. it becomes harder for new bands to break into the market. I think it's terrible that we keep hearing the same recycled, safe music all the time, especially in chinese music.
So in conclusion, I do not wish that mp3s will go away.
I wish that mp3s are available but there be a control on it so that the quality of the mp3s is far removed from what you would hear on the original cd. Say, 64kbps mp3? It would be good enough to hear as a teaser, but you would want to buy the original cd if you like what you hear.

Pier.

 

[Duske]

lppier, I get that a lot too. I have friends who have become total pirates, and they download EVERYTHING, and i get funny looks for still buying CDs. But really, no fans= no musicians, and if i like a band and i want them to keep coming out with new stuff then im definitely gonna buy their album. I usually download just to check out their sound if they're a new band to me and if i like what i hear i go out and buy their album. And with CDs getting a bit cheaper these days its not as bad on the pocket as before ( gramaphone and that CD shop are pretty decent). Or if you're really poor the 2nd hand section of gramaphone usually yields some good stuff if you have the time to look.

 

[a_b_normal123]

hmmm..for me i just buy the cds...cos I'm too afraid to download...

 

[nitrovo]

Sharing is caring.

I've been downloaded music from the net since napsters early days..so thats what...5-6 yrs now?

I also used to get a heap of music from lan parties.

 

[lars_ulrich]

Sharing is caring.

I've been downloaded music from the net since napsters early days..so thats what...5-6 yrs now?

I also used to get a heap of music from lan parties.

just the kind of people the industry doesnt need.