I am not a crook! Well, maybe a little...

I got drawn in to watching 'Insight' today and the topic they were discussing was, essentially, music piracy by downloading. It was kinda interesting. It had a mix of people representing some different positions. They had musicians, downloaders, record industry guy, ISP guy and some other people. The basic opinion, held by everyone I think, was that it was just theft but it also provided some benefits like greater distribution.I put the link to the transcript below but there’s no reason to read it all, but reading the intro would probably explain the format better.

Anyways, I was just interested to see if any of you had any opinions, strong or not, about the issue and if you wanted to chisel them down in stone and be forever held to them.

http://news.sbs.com.au/insight/mitunes_548047

That was really interesting. I lean towards the stance of "support the little guy" that one of the people was putting forward. As in, buy the CD of independent artists. I don't want to spend 20-30 on a CD where most of that is going to the glorified middle-man of the record company.

edit: and try to get to as many concerts as possible.

I’d never really thought of any reason not to download music before, basically because it was just easier not to think about it, but I guess when I’m actually forced to think about it I become a little bit more conflicted about it, or just a little more uncertain at least.

I do think it’s a bit much when they just blanket label it as “stealing”. Though perhaps it is…

Come to shows with me! It's great for assuaging your guilt and the artists get far more money from them anyway.

edit: Tom Waits is touring right now. Only in America though. Son of a bitch.

That's not a reply. What did I say about the replies? Yeah.

Wha?

I said you can't just post random, semi-related crap in the forum, that's what I said. Damnit! Don't go being all Glen on me.


Okay, so here's something semi-related that I just thought of: What do you think about upcoming little guys in music and the such compared with the little guys in like internet entertainment(?) like Arby 'n' the Chief, as an example. Such as the fact we don't pay for - and they don't ask us to, except donations - their products. Do you think this has any relevance to the music thing, or are they inherently different situations?

My crap was very related, dammit, I was saying that if you feel conflicted about music downloads, go to shows. Perfectly related.

Internet entertainment is different in that they would be more likely to make money in selling ad space and merchandise.

Marc wrote:if you feel conflicted about music downloads, go to shows.

So, as a serious question, do you think it is okay if you download music as long as you see their shows? Or perhaps it just lessens the blow?

Marc wrote:they would be more likely to make money in selling ad space and merchandise.

Yeah true, but why couldn't musicians do that?

Andrew.C wrote:

Marc wrote:if you feel conflicted about music downloads, go to shows.

So, as a serious question, do you think it is okay if you download music as long as you see their shows? Or perhaps it just lessens the blow?

I'm going to go with a good old-fashioned "it depends". In general, though, it would lessen the blow.

Marc wrote:they would be more likely to make money in selling ad space and merchandise.

Andrew.C wrote:Yeah true, but why couldn't musicians do that?

Visiting a website for internet entertainment means that you're always heading back to that website. They get more traffic, they get more ads. You download a song, the artist isn't getting any traffic from you. Merchandise sales are bigger for that kind of thing because music is, in general, smaller business than youtube clips or movies. I mean, I go to see a Tom Waits or Nick Cave show, Glen's not going to come, but we can both enjoy Arby n the Chief. Movies and comedies and the like get a broader audience. We have generally varied music tastes across our group (to broaden the demographic slightly, ha) but we all love The Simpsons.

I respect the “it depends” response, I love it in fact. It’s one of my favourites.

Yeah I see the difference in using peer-to-peer file sharing for music and watching a clip on a website, but that’s apples and oranges; I was more thinking about musicians posting up songs/videoclips on their website in a similar fashion to the other stuff, though as I’m typing this I can sorta see how it wouldn’t work. I guess they are fundamentally different media.

Though, think about this, one of the reasons I was thinking that the ‘streaming’ idea wouldn’t work was because, amongst other reasons, artists release their music in albums. This also probably has many reasons behind it but probably one reason is simply the practical/financial reasons in that it would be too expensive to make a single for every song. But what if when they finished a song they could record it and stream it live to a website, or something…? Would be a different industry, and possibly cut out a lot of the middle-men.

I think your point about how comedies span across a wider selection of the population is interesting. Almost a whole nother discussion in that…

Hey why am i being used as a crevu-esque catch word. stop it, it's demeaning...

How's THAT for random and off topic Andy face!

What. I said that we have different taste in music. That's not Crevulicious.