Illegal Downloading

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10th Doctor

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I used to download music all the time with no problem. Then, I started listening to a band that knocked my socks off. I loved them, and I still do. And when I watched an interview with them, the lead singer had said that if his fans were true, they'd buy his music instead of stealing it.

So I complied.

But then I read a chart about how much the artist really gets when you buy their product. That most of the music goes to the record.

What do you think is right?
 
Yoshida said:
stealing!
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Could you elaborate on your post, please? This is a serious discussion section. One word replies are generally removed as spam.

As for me, I don't think illegal downloading hurts anyone; most artists earn their money touring these days, it's why for some artists, they'd rather tour every year than make new albums - there's just not enough money in it.

I think illegal downloading isn't too bad. 9/10, if I like the artist a lot, I'll go out and actually buy their CD as well, or go to their concert, etc. There are other ways to support the artists you love.
 
I'm not a guru on the music industry, but I would presume that it actually does hurt the artists, record labels, etc. because they're always bitching about it and lobbying for more strict copyright laws and such. They wouldn't be going through the trouble of expending so much time and money into the issue if they didn't think it was worthwhile. I've heard about studies with regard to the opposite notion of not greatly impacting sales, but these studies go both ways and are hardly what you'd call comprehensive. It makes sense to me that it'll be more detrimental than beneficial to the music industry if one of their revenue stream sources suddenly disappears. It's good that some are going for the itunes route and stuff, but I'd say that hardly compensates for the loss.

But I haven't really taken much time to think about it so I could be wrong?

Edit: Forgot to answer the actual question of the thread. As for whether or not what's the "right" thing to do, it's probably "right" to just download the individual tracks from itunes or another legit site. I'm not a very avid music listener so spending $20 for 20 songs a month doesn't really cut into my budget. But seeing as a lot of people have like 15 gigs of music and download music by the album...it can be a bit costly to curtail your bittorrent or mirc freeloading lifestyle.
 
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how many times do i have to lose my post to the back button...why does MS insist on keeping the 'backpage' command on it? can i disable this?

on topic: the record labels are fighting a losing battle. they'd be better off spending their effort on adapting to the new tech than fighting it. from my point of view they're just bitter that their customer base is dwindling thanks to increased exposure to new music via internet. they used to have a stranglehold on which artists got the spotlight, that isn't the case now and they're not happy about it. piracy is bad, so i have no supporting arguments for it. i will say, though, if all it takes to get the music you want is a few clicks, versus driving to the store to buy the CD, which do you think the majority of people will choose? This is the new arena, and the record labels will have to deal with it. They've taken some steps in the right direction, but they still have a ways to go. Unfortunately, I don't have an answer for how they should proceed. Perhaps they're stuck too.

tl;dr: yes it's bad, but if you want to do it, know that each song 'robs' the artist of a small percentage of what that song would cost on itunes, the rest would go to the labels. 'rob' only applies if you would have bought their music if getting it free wasn't an option. if you wouldn't have bought it regardless, then nothing is lost or gained really.
 
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Going by a music industry course I took a few years ago.. Apparently the real money in the music industry comes from royalties. If someone's song appears in a movie for example, they are supposed to get paid a certain percentage of every DVD that is sold, every time the movie appears on TV they need to be paid etc...

I think the main way that illegal downloading can affect musicians directly is the risk of them being dropped by the label itself as a result of low sales. The music industry works like retail, the industry chooses certain products to market and if they aren't selling, the industry stops marketing them. Obviously there is the issue that musicians are losing some money as a result of piracy, but I think this is less important by comparison.

As for what I think about piracy, I can understand why people would be a bit upset about downloading entire albums (even though I do this myself). But I think the problem lies with overpricing by retailers.
I think tossing around the idea of paying for every song we download is a bit extreme. We have the radio, music videos and youtube (where the record labels themselves upload music videos) which we can access anytime to listen to music free of charge, so what's the difference between downloading these songs for the sake of convenience and logging on to youtube to listen to them?


Personally I think the industry needs to adapt to the age of free downloading, I remember there was a site that popped up which came up with a legal way to download free music by making it so various companies would pay for the music in exchange for advertising and you'd have to fill out a marketing survey or something if you wanted to download something. I thought that was a semi-decent idea..but I didn't really use it.
 
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If I didn't get the music I like for free I probably would buy it more often. I did, as a child, before I found the internet. It's probably okay for someone like me who doesn't actually listen to THAT much music to go out and buy shit, it wouldn't skin me too much...but for people who like everything? If they didn't get it for free they certainly wouldn't buy everything and, thus, wouldn't support everything as fully and so I kind of see it as balancing out in the long run.

Of course I'm just trying to justify stealing thousands off the music industry in my lifetime. :wacky:
 
Piracy is bad. Though, I guess it is times like these in which I am very glad that I do not give a shit.

I'm broke, albums are expensive, good ol' interwebs is just making my life a little more simple. Besides, most music now days is too shitworty to actually warrant paying for. Even if there is a band that I really like, I will probably pirate their stuff. I simply can't afford it, and even if I could, I'm not throwing down $20 for a subpar album. It had better be damned good.

Besides, if any "artist" (term being used very loosely) thinks that a real fan should be buying their music, then they're in it for the money. A real musician should be in it for the music, and the fans, not a price tag. They should be the ones raking in cash. Too bad people like that are a dying breed. If I was out making music, I'd be happy that people were even enjoying my stuff. (Seeing as how in the music department, we're getting right tons of shit. Such as Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Kesha, etc.)

The same exact could be said about movies and video games. Maybe if you would make your product better, it would give me more incentive to buy it. No chance in hell I'm paying for Call of Duty: Shovelware warfare black opps 5 or Halo 6 ODSReach or Assassins Creed: Divide by Zero Brotherhood Chronicles Extreme.

But you will gladly see me buy a copy of Banjo Kazooie, or Chrono Cross without any issues.
 
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I think listening our music should be as legal as read a book in a library or see a movie and rip it from the TV. What's in question for companies are that they earned much money the last decades selling albums at a big price (remember each CD costing between 15-30 bucks) and now they don't want to face a new reality. Of course musicians, producers, engineers, etc, have to be paid, but concerts and advertising should be enough to their living and more rewarding for both parts.

I actually see no problem in illegal downloads, because I understand that not everybody in the world have money to full spend on music and however is something you can survive without, the fact is some cultural object that should reach everyone universally and in full form! The world is changing and I have heard recently from a female singer really not bothered with illegal downloads as long she has fans to support her! It was so delicious hearing that.
 
I download all of my music off the internet. If people want me to actually pay for it then they can a) make it available in this country, and b) charge a reasonable price for it.

Even if I wanted to buy video game soundtrack I couldn't, because nowhere in this country sells it, and online prices are absolutely criminal. And, frankly, if I'm expected to pay £7 or so for an album, I expect more than five or six songs...sometimes its not even that. Even iTunes is too expensive - it really racks up when you listen to music as much as I do.

If the price was reasonable, though, I WOULD buy it, even if I'd downloaded it before. I do that with anime quite frequently. However, since the music industry is very much like the game industry in that all they care about is money...

Illegal downloading is a bit of a joke, really. I mean, everyone does it. That mindset alone is enough to silence any guilty conscience, as well. Its gotten so widespread that they can hardly punish people for doing it; if the music industry has a problem with it, they should have nipped it in the bud before it got out of hand, and if they want to do something about it now, they should try cutting their excessive prices to encourage people to support the official product.
 
I'm proud to say that I'm one of those people who download music, shows, etc in the illegal way. I honestly don't see no problem with it. As stated above, the real money is in where the music gets placed in(movies, video games, etc..). So, when people make a big deal about piracy just makes them sound like whiny little bitches, tbh >.>. I even heard one day on the radio, that the Lead Singer of Slipknot doesn't really give a rats ass that Slipknot's fans download their music illegally. According to him, at least they like the music, so that's all that should matter. My point in this is purely, that if people take the time to download the music, tv shows, movies, and other such things, then I say why does it matter all that much.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I do believe that even if you've downloaded all of this stuff illegally, then you should at least show the respect to these people ripped off by buying their stuff. That's, at least what I'm going to do soon enough, but I've only actually bought like 5% of what I've downloaded :wacky:.
 
I'm more of a try before I buy person. I'll download a few songs and if I find I like the band enough, I'll go out and buy their CDs. That's how I got into most of the bands I listen to now. 2 or 3 downloaded songs turned into 2 or more bought CDs (depending on the band and how many CDs they have out). If I don't like the band enough to get their CDs but I like the song, then I'll just keep what I downloaded.
 
Darquewillow said:
Besides, if any "artist" (term being used very loosely) thinks that a real fan should be buying their music, then their in it for the money. A real musician should be in it for the music, and the fans, not a price tag. They should be the ones raking in cash. Too bad people like that are a dying breed. If I was out making music, I'd be happy that people were even enjoying my stuff. (Seeing as how in the music department, we're getting right tons of shit. Such as Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Kesha, etc.)
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the dream is to make a living from your passion so any "artist" should expect fans to pay. of course a true artist wouldnt expect the fans to pay for record label salaries etc but that side of the music industry has brought the typical celebrity status we know now and made artists (who arguably have no talent) millionaires. quite a few artists/bands start their own record label so that their work effectively supports itself but that means more work for them, it also means the majority of their income will come from tours which is even more work. so the big record labels are obviously attractive for a lot of artists. especially those that are talentless but sellable, the big labels like them.

as for illegal downloading, im guilty. though if i really like and appreciate the music i'll go out my way to buy it.
 
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Ive bought loads of albums, and the ones ive downloaded, I really doubt i would of gone out and bought them anyway. I own half of what ive downloaded on CD as well, so i dont feel too guilty about it. Theres afew others i have downloaded, that i likely would of bought (Some James, U2 and Muse) but Ive spent enough in concert tickets and merch over the time.....

A hell of a lot of what i have on my itunes i wouldnt of bothered buying at all

And by not feeling too guilty, i mean, i dont feel guilty at all. as consumers we get skanked enough as it ism and lets face it, if *I* know how to do it then, its their own tough shit for allowing it to get so easy

oh, im while im at it, ive downloaded stuff i have paid for in thepast and for one reason or another (some mong breaking the cd, or lending them out to never get them back) so a fair bit of its replacement :mokken:
 
If theyre fans were true theyd buy their music? That just sounds like a load of craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap.
I steal all my music. It costs nothing so its more appealing to me. Simple as that. At one point i had a shelf full of cds. Eventually the cases get cracked and the disks scratched etc etc.
I dont like a song any more cuz i payed for it. And i dont get a boner for seeing that i own the actual cd.
 
I download all of my music, seriously when you think about it, you're just wasting money if you buy a CD, I'd spend hundred and hundreds of dollars on music, to see shelves of CDs which I prolly won't even listen to anymore, why should I waste my money on that?

Also, I always like 2-3 song out of the whole album, should I go and buy it all? o_O Not to mention, in my country the CDs are REALLY not worth buying, I mean 40JD (More than 50 dollars) for a CD, is just a rip-off, no thanks, I'll stick to downloading, if it's gonna harm them, well, I don't care. <_<

I also don't like songs that much, I prefer soundtracks, I'd rather hear symphonies than someone singing.
 
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Personally, I don't think it's fair that someone should make millions for having a good voice.

They should be compensated for sure, but they took the cake,, and they want the crumbs.

So I see nothing wrong with it, to be honest.
 
To be truthful, I can't really be concerned with this... By 'this', I'm referring to all the negative hype about it. I do download music as well, because since it's possible, and because it's just not economical to buy a CD... Which I would most probably only be able to listen on the computer... >.> Sure, you might want to tell me about those portable CD players? I don't even like the idea of bringing something like that when phones nowadays have the ability to play music.

Which only makes downloaded music seem more impressive.

Sure, it might be some sort of disservice to the artist and all... But again... Honestly. I do not care. If I really want to show my support, isn't listening to their music just as good? That, and if I really, really want to show support, I'd definitely get tickets to their concerts.
 
Honestly, I've never seen a big issue in downloading music. Metallica put up a huge stink with the original Napster, and why? They were already established and wealthy. I can understand that a band has to spend money to put out an album, and they should make something back on it, especially if it's good. But what about the wealthy big name bands? They certainly don't need more money. I suppose I can take both sides of the battle for this, so I tend to just stay neutral. :lew: Big name bands can lose out on downloads, but they don't need it anyways. Smaller bands can get exposed better with downloads, but it does take away money they could make and possibly need.

With that being said, I don't really download music much. Hell, I still go to the store and buy CD's. :lew: Generally if I download music, its like a 1 song deal. I downloaded "Shot in the Dark" the other day by Ozzy, just because I've had that song in my head lately but didn't have it on a CD. But I'm not going to go buy a CD just for 1 song. I have downloaded entire CD's in the past, but I only tend to do that if a CD is rare or difficult to find in stores. Better than buying the CD on the internet for a ridiculous price.
 
I used to try and download music but I eventually got fed up of all the bogus sites that I would end up on. Constantly being re-directed only to find it's a load of shite in the end.

Then, I just got the music off YouTube like SaShman said, and there are a ton of sites that let you download YouTube videos as mp3s. Granted, it's not CD quality but it's just for when I listen to my iPod on the train or on the way to Uni. It's a pretty simple choice, do I download the video of the song I like for free, or do I pay for it?

I don't download a whole lot anymore anyway. I got Spotify which lets me listen to free high quality music with a couple of ads inbetween every 3 or 4 songs which is pretty awesome.
 
I Buy Games and the occasional DVD that I really love but I download Most movies, TV shows and Music.

Why am I allowed to record a song off the radio or tape a show with a recordable DVD player but I'm not allowed to download it off the internet??
It really makes no sense to me.

Also once the stores start selling these things for a reasonable price is when I will buy them without worry.
 
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