Music piracy, good or bad? | Free Voice Network

Apr 02

Thou shalt not steal…

Posted by: Michael Willow in 2009, Copyrights, Internet, Society

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Thousands of users today prefer to download songs online for free using sharing software instead of buying cds from the record stores or paying the artists via itunes or other online stores.

The controversy:

First opinion: This illegal. Everyone gets paid and the same should happen for musicians. Why do we have to accept it? I am a musician, I write songs and this is the service I provide, this is my job, this is my life! If somebody doesn’t appreciate it, they should could go and try to steal cds and dvds from the record stores instead of hiding in the safety of their homes.

If I don’t pay the electricity bills I will be convicted, the same if I don’t pay the rent, my taxes, my credit cards, mortgages? So why do we have to accept the “pirates” and why do we still allow them to waste the musician’s job? This simply “kills” the mainstream music industry worldwide.

Some people may say “I don’t pay them, I don’t want to let them build swimming pools, houses with huge gardens and live luxuriously while I struggle for a few money”. The answer is why don’t people complain about the salaries of doctors, lawyers, footballers, supermodels etc? When the musicians provide a product that many people want, they naturally earn a lot, like all those who provide popular products (retailers of all kinds).

The other side: Illegal downloading gives more publicity to the new bands. Even websites like Youtube and Myspace can provide online streaming in very high quality so we can preview thousands of songs before they buy. Apart from that the artists get only percentages from their sales. Most of their earnings go to their record companies, so the “illegal” sharing does not reduce significantly their incomes. On the contrary, it makes their music more accessible to the public (because it’s free) increasing consequently their chances to gain more support in gigs/concerts (which are main source of income for most of the musicians)!

There are many who use the file-sharing as a preview and then they buy what they want. This is acceptable indeed. Why should people blindly buy cds? Why should we listen to whatever the music industry give us and the media subliminally force upon us? Further more, most of the mainstream music today isn’t good enough comparing to the 60s, 70s and the 80s while there are millions of underground artists worthy to win more publicity rather than the very overrated idols who last for a few months and then disappear. Why then we should pay so much to buy cheap, meaningless music?

It is estimated that about 45million people in UK downloads songs from the well known software. According to Guardian co.uk “Significant numbers – around 63% – download music over P2P networks. 42% allow others to upload music from their hard drives“. The numbers are really shocking. “The music industry could be facing a crisis because of the number of young people still illegally downloading from the internet, a report has warned” (BBC 28 November 2005). Until then, the situation has really worsened as both in U$A and UK huge financial loss has been recorded. (Check this article also)

Was the British Phonographic Industry right to take action against “piracy”, and protect the record companies who really do not provide us great quality of music? As BBC reports “People in the UK who go online and illegally download music and films may have their internet access cut under plans the government is considering”. (12 of February 2008). What does this really mean? That they will persecute the 85% of the total population banning them from using the internet? It is appalling how the government agencies do everything possible to support the huge corporate business!

The music industry people need to be aware of why people download music if they want to tackle “illegal sharing”. What happens with the prices of the cds? There are people who cannot afford to buy cds, especially those who are affected by the recession, others with more serious expenses. The UK minimum wage is 5.73 pounds per hour, which means that a low-payed employee needs to spend about two or three working hours to buy a cd album considering the 15.99£ price. I feel there is something to be done about it. Maybe the music industry should consider increasing the cd prices and make the music available only for a few rich people, making the music a privilege!!!

Nevertheless, we should be aware of some points. Even if the cd prices fall, the music piracy will not be significantly reduced. Still a large percentage of users will continue the “illegal” sharing not because they want to boycott the major record labels who treat the artists unfairly but they simply believe “music is not a job”, “the musicians and the artists do not deserve to get paid” I do support the idea that everything should be free, but not just only music. Music is not inferior, it is something equal. Nevertheless, this is a different issue and it should not be used as an excuse to support a bunch of greedy retailers, the record labels!

We could try to find a new system of rewarding the artists rather than overpaying the record companies. There are so many talented artists who cannot get anywhere because the chances to become famous are very few due to the way the record companies work. We don’t want a few overpaid mediocre artists who become rich and disappear in a short while. More musicians should be able to have good work prospects. What is the only way to achieve that right now? Simply, abolish all the record labels and reform the media system.

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8 Comments

8)

+1 Michael Willow:
04/06/2010 @ 13:30 Link
I agree with Ozz, it is just futile to think music piracy will stop. Moreoever, if you are a musician, of course you would prefer to have your own recording studio instead of spending millions of dollars, euros (whatever it is) to a professional. But how can a musicians get the expensive music recording software that exist in the market (most of them cost more than 200$)? Of course downloading, no other solution!
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7)

+3 Ozz:
04/06/2010 @ 00:01 Link
There is NO WAY anyone can ever stop people from illegally download music for free. This activity of uploading and downloading songs for free is a form of technology. We should never go against technology, we should always go along with technology and make use of it to complement our lifestyles!

Let’s just be honest here, the price of music today is ZERO. Record industries and musicians must stop worrying about the fall of CD sales and focus to gain a revenue stream from somewhere else!

With music being widely available for anyone to ‘steal’, a lot more people are more exposed to different styles of music. Remember that every download might be another T-Shirt sale or another concert ticket for that artist. Music should be a promotional tool for artists to get exposure. From that exposure, fans should come easier and loyal fans are always willing to spend the extra money to watch their favorite artists perform or buy their merchandise.

I am a professional musician myself and I do make a living out of my music. We are just at a stage of adapting to this new digital era and I know it’s hard. But just like what Darwin said “Adapt to the environment or perish”.
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6)

+1 Michael Willow:
28/04/2009 @ 22:50 Link
I do agree, music shouldn’t be a privilege for the elites, but available for everyone. The prices of Cd look extremely high but this is not the root of the problem. The whole system is wrong. The salaries are very low and the prices of the cds let’s say 10-15 euro each, is reasonable for an employee in Ireland, but 10 Euro in Greece is like 3 working hours. It is outrageous!
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5)

+1 Dario Western:
28/04/2009 @ 21:59 Link
It’s the same old argument that the record labels used in the early 80′s when they whined about home taping, and Warner Music threatened to withdraw advertising of their products in any magazine that advertised the sale of blank tapes.

The only reason why people pirate music from the web is as a reaction against the greedy record companies, the retailers and the government’s sales tax which causes the high price of CDs.

This is what happened in Australia during the 90′s when music buyers were purchasing albums by their favourite artists via parallel imports which came from Indonesia and other countries at the local 7-11 and petrol stations as well as using sites like KaZaa and Napster to get their music. This put a bit of pressure on the record companies to drop the price somewhat and the sales started to improve again. During the 1990′s up till about 2003, Australians were paying about $8 for a CD single and $35 for an album and most of their buyers tend to be in their teens to late 20′s. Most older Australians have got no interest whatsoever in modern music to either listen to or buy (except as presents for their kids or grandkids).

The problem with piracy is that ultimately no laws can really stop people from getting their music any way they want. My mother used to complain that “music is a luxury that most people cannot afford”. The Internet completely turned that around and providing that people do not download music from the net that is readily available in the shops, whack it onto a CD and then go selling it to their friends or in some dingy little inner-city market then I see no reason to prosecute.

What musos could do is like what’s been suggested above: only allow a taster of songs to be legally uploaded as an MP3 file or on iTunes, thus leaving the listener wanting more.
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4)

+1 Saul:
24/04/2009 @ 02:51 Link
My apologies for my long-winded soap boxing. If prices and content offered becomes more reasonable, will all people quit illegal file-sharing, a practice which deprives artists of any income? No, sad to say.

I think perhaps the biggest difference between our viewpoints is that I don’t see an alternative. It’s market forces – if the record companies’ profits suffer, and they can’t legislate away the competition that file-sharing provides, then they must change their business model to survive.

Perhaps I am lacking sufficient empathy for the artists? I still go to shows and even buy merch if I’m really into the band….

I don’t know. I’m willing to keep an open mind, though.

Saul
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3)

+1 Michael Willow:
23/04/2009 @ 20:27 Link
Hi Saul thanks for the comment-essay and your time to spend for contributing to this blog. We almost agree.

I have to complete you, the record companies work like dictators, they package us and generally do whatever they want. Paying 20$ for a cd is not worthy. Give the music to the people. Unfortunately the record companies became more greedy while greed has no limits.

I really tell you that I deal with record companies a lot of times in my daily business and I regret to say I have met the worst people there. The most greedy idiots without good taste just money growing overpriced morons who think they can have an opinion for almost everything and present themselves as “the elite” of the music industry! I have downloaded songs as well not a few times, but whatever I found good, I bought it later.
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2)

+1 Saul:
23/04/2009 @ 19:29 Link
I want artists to be paid fairly. The problem is that they aren’t – major labels exchange promotion and endorsement for the lion’s share of the resulting revenue. As you point out in the previous post about mass-marketing lowest common denominator music – it’s not genuine artists doing this, it’s a record company hoping to maximize their profits by cashing in on fashionable trends.

If file-sharing can challenge these obsolete, bloated (I would even say evil!) corporations to reform their practices, then I am all for it. Be competitive, or fail. Those are your options!

The record companies stopped reporting sales how many years ago? We have to take their word for it that they are “losing sales” due to file-sharing. In fact, the last reported numbers showed that the only market to take a negative impact was the singles market – album sales actually rose!

In this modern day with access to the internet and DVDs with extra content… why should I pay 20$ for 13 tracks, many of which are pure dross?

If a CD was priced fairly, there would be more sales and less demand for file-sharing… fact of life. Do what DVDs do – include extra content like live performances, artist interviews, “the making of the album”, etc. If I’m paying 20$ for a DVD that has over 12 hours of content, why should I pay 20$ for an album that has 1.5 at the most?

And even worse, I know that only a small portion of that money goes to the artist – the rest of it goes to the distributor and the record label.

Well, that’s not a financial model that I want to support. I buy music online, but I also download. How else could I possibly find an early, out of print album from my favorite obscure indie band?

Bottom line : increase the quality of the content, price the content fairly, and make it more available to me as the consumer, and I’ll buy more of it.

Until record labels stop running their business “like it was 1982″ (thank you, MC Lars) then their only recourse is this obscene abuse of our legal system.

Guess what? You can’t legislate away my unwillingness to support your corporate greed!

Saul
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1)

+2 justmyopinion:
10/04/2009 @ 20:45 Link
I could download any music I wanted, it’s all there. But you know what I hardly take any of it because 90% is utter dross. Are these artists asking us to pay top dollar for rubbish?

What sometimes happens with me is I hear about a talented artist, so I download some of their stuff. If I agree that they are good I go and buy the real thing and I go and see them in concert.

This is part of natural selection process, in this way we can rid ourselves of the overwhelming masses of crap ‘music’. Hopefully only the good stuff will survive.
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