Secondly, you have inspired me, and it’s probably for the better. I’ve never really put any serious thought into pirating via P2P or whatever- my mentality has always been that it’s like stealing from the cookie jar, it’s kinda bad, but not really. I’ll help people out when I can. But after seeing these posts by fanatics who not only feel it’s their God given right to pirate other people’s work, they feel morally righteous about it- I can’t help but realize it’s been too long. The music industry has already paid it’s dues for falling behind the technology curve. Give it a rest. It doesn’t seem like any of you could give less of a sh*t about the people who create the content you freely consume. Betting your financial future on your creative passion is a huge risk, and you’re helping to grow the margin of people who decide to just become office drones. Art that really changes the world isn’t just a hobby that people do in their spare time.

As for some of your other bullsh*t comments, artists getting paid for their work isn’t welfare, it’s business. Maybe when you actually have to work for a living you’ll realize that 40 hours a week is almost half your waking life. And people who dream of doing their passion for a living don’t need to be shot down by @ssholes like you. Real advertising isn’t free, no one’s going to find your website unless you tirelessly promote yourself or pay for real advertising space with a large audience exposure. And getting your band reviewed on a reputable blog or a well known website like Pitchfork is world’s better exposure for an artist than being freeloaded on Bittorrent. Hell, people might even decide to buy your album. So congratulations, you’ve inspired me. Just based on the fact that you’re a self-righteous @sshole. I actually feel bad now for all the songs I have that I haven’t paid for. So if I decide to go buy an album tomorrow, you may have actually helped the economy and the creative industry, in the most roundabout way.

literally, 99.9% of it is god awful.

the reason for this is simple: it takes a tremendous amount of time and study and talent to make any piece of worthwhile music or film. anything of quality was not derived from the efforts of a hobby. the copyright free world you want everyone to embrace would bring down the overall quality of art from “mediocre” to “abysmal” as no one would have the time or financial incentive to devote to bettering their skills.

and yes, there is a financial incentive to art. here, in the real world, outside of your parent’s basement where you are provided a limitless supply of mountain dew and hot pockets…money matters. your idealism is hysterical.

you are the single dumbest, most inane poster here, roze. you have the logic and reasoning skills of a typical fifteen year old. why don’t you expend some of that social frustration somewhere else?

This brings me back to my original point. Maybe music just isn’t as good now because it’s not a viable career option for most. And most people who are serious about making art don’t want it to be a hobby they do in their spare time. They want to be able to make a living. No limos, no champagne in the back room. Just rent and food and gas money. A lot of great bands are indie bands, bands that don’t make a lot of money. I could give less of a crap about whether Britney Spears or Metallica sell another album.

It’s not a big deal if you make a copy of an album for your friend. That’s been happening since the days of the cassette tape. It’s the scale of P2P that has thrown the balance completely out of whack. It’s thousands or millions of people copying files that creates a problem. Now we have the RIAA threatening to sue bars if they don’t pay up for every song they play on the stereo. And they have every right to do that. They’ve just never had to it before because they were making enough money. I met a guy the other day that works at a recording studio, and he told me to stay out of the business, because it had totally dried up.

Everybody downloads. It’s a fact of life right now. If an album gets leaked before it’s released, everyone in the downloading world has their free pre-release copy. I do it. I’m just saying, I know that I want to help out artists who really need the help. And I don’t think the average person does. I think the average person, when given the opportunity, will take things for free, and never give a second thought to it. And P2P creates unlimited opportunities for those average people to take and take and consume and consume without ever giving anything back. The average person is not going to create an awesome remix from an mp3. And for the artists who want to be successful and quit their shit jobs so they can spend more time being creative and refining their craft, just consuming their work isn’t enough. Pass the tip jar around. Wake up to reality. Bills need to be paid, but nobody else wants you to be able to eat or pay your rent. And I’d like to see someone else here admit (aside from freetard), that’s fucked up.

Umm, you know other people have to eat to survive, too, right. It’s kind of a basic principle of life. They say Kurt Cobain’s death was the greatest PR move of his life, but he was already famous by then.

“music sales as a whole are down about 29 percent from the end of 1999.”
“Obviously because it is less popular now.”

Right. That couldn’t have had anything to do with the fact that when Napster came out around 2000, everyone and their mom was downloading music like crazy. I remember, I was there. Some people on campus had to be cut off because they were using up so much bandwidth. But you’re right, it’s just a coincidence.

Am I necessarily talking about buttloads of money for musicians? No. That’s the whole point. There’s plenty of artists who make just enough money to get by. Why is that such a complicated concept for you to understand? Everyone has to eat. People usually buy food with money. Artists don’t need welfare if people are paying actual money for their albums. Is it really too much to ask for a dollar for a song? I’ve seen people give more money to bums on the street. Are you saying that artists are less worthy of receiving money than bums are?

I love how morally righteous you are about artists needing to create work without any desire of getting paid, but when it comes to me saying, “Hey, maybe I shouldn’t let thousands if not millions of people copy this album of off me for free, maybe they should buy it themselves”, I’m suddenly the one who’s being morally self righteous. Why don’t you try going to work for a couple of months, if not a year or two, without any pay? Just give it away. How would you like that?

Your statement on how P2P could “possibly” result in less sales is also completely ridiculous. Well, anything could “possibly” result in less sales – perhaps we should outlaw everything that results in less sales of anything. You seem completely ignorant of the fact that P2P is actually helpful towards art. Now why don’t you step out of the box you have clearly been living in.

Roze

For incentive, you think that money is the only incentive. Wrong. Inspiration from seeing art is incentive for art. There would be more art when more people have access to it.

And who are you to judge that “mash-ups” are inferior? Weren’t you saying a moment ago that people should have incentive to create art? So you’re saying that people shouldn’t have incentive, and that only the people at the top should have incentive? This goes completely against what you have said earlier about “struggling artists.” Being against a “deluge of crap” is clearly being against many struggling artists. Even though many struggling artists wish to create something good, surely they might create some crap. Improvement and practice is where it is at, after all, and you seem to be against all of this.

Moreover, you fail to see that there are many artists who are using BitTorrent to promote themselves. Struggling artists are much better off with BitTorrent as the distribution model – especially since it is free, and the people do it for you. You must be blind.

Get your facts straight.

Roze

Besides, who are you to push your “don’t copy” morality on others? You may think that it is not okay to copy and give to friends. Fine, that’s your opinion. But what right have you to force your morality on others?

“And I?ve heard more than enough of those s****y mash-up remixes. This is what happens when everyone in the world has access. A deluge of crap, like Eminem/Britney Spears mashups.”
If music doesn’t deserve to exist because it is bad, then most of music doesn’t deserve to exist. Perhaps the copyright for those should be revoked… but of course, copyright makes no exceptions. You think that every artist should be living the grand life, getting lots of income? Then explain the exception that you make to mash-up makers.

“You guys completely ignore the artists who are still struggling and trying to make it.”
It seems like you are ignoring all the artists who are struggling and trying to make it when you say that when everybody has access, that there will be a deluge of crap. Sounds like a self-contradiction there, with your elitism.

“I?m a musician, obviously. I live in New York. Rent is high. Practice space, gear, gas money all add up. I work my ass off at two jobs and and I spend another 10 hours a week practicing with the band, plus gigs.”
Good for you. It is the expenses of any other American. You seem to think that you are somebody special and that people should just give money to you.

“You?re just a freeloader like everyone else. Sure, I do it, too. But sometimes my conscience gets the better of me and I?ll buy an actual album from a band that I?m sure could use the boost. Is that so wrong?”
How is it freeloading when one gives back? It is not always in the form of money. For example, merely seeing/hearing it is giving back. That is because the purpose of the art is to have an audience. Moreover, art is always inspiration for more art.

By the way, you seem to be against this “deluge of crap.” That sounds like you actually want less art to be out there. That means that you are anti-art. I don’t get it. You’re saying that money is supposed to be incentive, but you actually want less art to be out there.

“Don?t try and tell me otherwise.”
You don’t get any right not to be argued with when what you are saying is absolute crap.

“music sales as a whole are down about 29 percent from the end of 1999.”
Obviously because it is less popular now.

A copyright is a copyright. The person or people who created the content are the ones who have the right to create copies and distribute them. That’s why Youtube is forced to remove copyrighted material from it’s site when the people who own the copyright ask them to take it down. If artists want to give away their content for free, they have that choice and it’s easy to do these days, but who are you to decide that for them?

Wake up, sleepyhead. International distribution and advertising are free these days. We don’t live in the mid 90’s anymore.

The big, bad record companies no longer have a justification for their dubious existence. They have never been anything more than rapists with artists as their victims, but now with the Internet, they can no longer hide behind the facade of being a necessary evil.

“As far as P2P not being stealing, that’s just plain childish and retarded.”

What’s childish and retarded is to call P2P stealing, kid, when no court on the face of the planet recognizes filesharing as theft because even lawmakers are able to comprehend the fact that duplicating something is entirely different from taking it.

Sadly, this is a fact that you fail to comprehend.

“But there’s plenty of smaller labels that support great music that need financial support from actual sales.”

Who the hell is saying we shouldn’t support indie labels, fuckwit? When people refer to record companies being parasitic leeches that everybody would be better off without, they’re referring to the big MAFIAA affiliated labels. Not the indies who actually support artists rather than fleece them.

“Businesses need to make money off their products in order to keep operating.”

And filesharing doesn’t stand in the way of that. Try again.

“Sure, copying a friend’s CD is relatively harmless, but when you build a worldwide network where anyone with a computer and the internet can copy thousands of different albums and games and programs with relative ease, the scale becomes significantly different.”

Music sales are up and the game industry continues to grow, so peddle your “P2P is hurting the industry!!” bullshit elesehwere.

BTW, you strike me as just another whiney artiste using filesharing as a scapegoat for why you’re still unknown and struggling.

You guys completely ignore the artists who are still struggling and trying to make it. For some of us, we’re just trying to make enough to get by. And every little bit helps. Sure, there’s some artists who are filthy rich, and there’s some labels who have (or used to have) way too much money. But there’s plenty of smaller labels that support great music that need financial support from actual sales. As for playing gigs, the same rule applies. If you’re not headlining a huge show, sometimes you barely make enough money to pay for gas. And the average band loses money when they go on tour. Period. Don’t try and tell me otherwise.

And I’ve heard more than enough of those shitty mash-up remixes. This is what happens when everyone in the world has access. A deluge of crap, like Eminem/Britney Spears mashups.

But really, this goes beyond music. Can you convince Bill Gates to just start giving away copies of Microsoft Office? Can you convince Steve Jobs to just give away copies of OS X “because it will help people” and “breed more creativity”? Can you convince Valve to stop requiring online registration with it’s Steam games so you can make copies with reckless abandon? NO. You’re logic is pathetic. Businesses need to make money off their products in order to keep operating. Obviously. You really think that anything that’s digital should be free just because it’s easy to copy? Grow up. Sure, copying a friend’s CD is relatively harmless, but when you build a worldwide network where anyone with a computer and the internet can copy thousands of different albums and games and programs with relative ease, the scale becomes significantly different.