Don’t tell me there’s not ways to hear an album before you steal it, and don’t justify your stealing by your economic situation or by the fact that you wouldn’t have paid for it if you hadn’t have been able to steal it. There was obviously a demand for the product, or you wouldn’t have downloaded it and burned it. THOSE PEOPLE DID NOT GET COMPENSATED FOR THEIR WORK THAT RESULTED IN YOUR ENTERTAINMENT. It’s that simple.
It’s wrong! Respect the musicians, songwriters, publicists, managers, engineers, producers, and their families. Don’t do it! Don’t steal music.

I am an artist in a small non-pop genre, my band is signed to a non-RIAA small record label, and a good part of my living comes from record sales, along with merch, and ticket sales. We probably sell around 15,000 albums a year, we play 150 dates a year, and I spend most of my life driving, flying, sleeping in a bunk, or loading in. I’m not complaining about it… music is my LIFE. It has been since I was a child. Sometimes I feel like a slave to it, but it’s my choice.
I have practiced, trained, written, and busted my ass on the road since I was a teenager, and I’d like to be compensated when someone enjoys what I do.
I don’t give one shit if someone uses the argument that they would have never bought my record if they couldn’t steal it. I don’t want you to have it. I worked hard on it and if you want to hear it, you have to pay me so I can eat.

It’s that simple. And yes, commercial radio sucks, but there are places like satellite radio, college radio, myspace, and internet radio where you can hear all kinds of new music.

I’m sure you’re an ok guy, and we’d probably like hanging out with each other, but you really need to see the flaws in your reasoning. I’m not an “RIAA zombie”, and honestly I’m a Libertarian, but I don’t feel that it’s wrong for people to get paid for their creations, and it’s not wrong for people to get rich off of music that’s popular.

Right or wrong, when P2P is used for what it should be used for, good things can happen, and it does in most cases. Sure, there are those who just take, and buy nothing, but in reallity, they probably weren’t going to buy anything anyway. What harm is done in them hearing the music? None, as these sort of people never were even a potential sale. It still doesn’t mean some good can’t from them either, as the music could be heard by their friends, who in turn buy an album.

The only ones that get hurt by P2P, are those that make a less than average product. THose are the ones who don’t want you to try before you buy, as they depend on blind buy sales to push their dreck.

In 2007 I downloaded around 200 albums in .flac format. Of those I burned 126 to CD-R.

In 2007 I went out a bought, with my hard earned cash, 136 CD titles(most from non RIAA smaller labels). Some box sets, and some double disc sets. Some of those being ones that I burnt to CD-R. To say I havn’t done more than my share, woud be just absurd. I spend what I can while providing for may family, so I see no harm in hearing music that I would otherwise never be exposed to.

Your right though, it is copyright infringment to download for free without the artists permission. The thing is, I will never feel any guilt. I do my best to show my support. Until the industry can find a way for me to truely discover good, new music, I will have to go down the free download road.

Really, P2P is a bigger threat to corporate radio, as it is no longer a good source for music discovery (really never was). Most of the die-hard P2P users, are music fans, and music fans collect, and buy albums. The rest of the lot are potential customers, but they are not lost sales, as one can not say if they were going to buy anyway.

In the end, if you want to sell more CDs, you better put out a good product. It is a try it before you buy it market, so the bar has been raised a lot higher. Two songs and a bunch of filler isn’t going to earn you a gold record anymore.

Like it or not, P2P is here to stay.

Besides, most of the artists I listen to are dead. If I bought their CD, I wouldn’t be supporting the artist. My money would go strait to the record executives, and I see no point in doing that.[/quote]

The artists sold their recorded music to these “executives” that you folks hate so much.
And by illegally downloading, you’re not just stealing from the “executives”, you’re stealing from the songwriter.
Not all bands write and record their own stuff, and there are a lot of songwriters that depend on royalties from these albums to make a living creating the music that you want to listen to.
I understand the arguments on all sides, but I don’t think that there’s any way to justify downloading people’s songs. You’re just justifying a wrong to keep yourself from feeling guilty.

Downloading music is no more ethical than going into Barnes and Noble and copying the pages of the books that you want, putting the books back, and leaving.

Of course you didn’t steal any physical property, but the books aren’t worth anything with out the words that are printed in them and there’s obviously a demand for the information in the book. That’s how our economy works! Someone works to create a product, and if you want to use it, you pay that person.

While I see that it’s a fun argument to make so that your actions don’t seem so bad, it’s just NOT ethical to steal intellectual property that you’re consuming.
Because after all, every “product” other than food started off as intellectual property. All industries are based off of bringing you comfort, convenience or entertainment, and just because you’ve figured out an easy way to steal from one, doesn’t make it right.