Replying to Free Music Outruled

Record companies mistake statistics for people stealing music, so maybe a band was popular when it released an album, next album comes out and they don't do too well, so they blame people stealing music. How I see it, bands change their style of music, some people liked them because of that style but they seem to all eventually succumb to what I feel, trying to target different areas but it does not do so well for them.

However, I do believe people steal music, it is stealing, I admit I do it too, but I have most the songs on my computer on legit albums because I also enjoy collecting them, some music that I have too are the hard to get ones, albums that no longer are in print, if it were still available I would most definitely purchase it, I buy from all around the world, so I don't feel that I've limited my options to only this country.

I just don't think the music industry realises how wrong statistics can be and to blame it on the majority of people stealing music, I think most of you have liked one band before and then all of a sudden they change their style and people just don't like them anymore.

There are also a number of people who don't even buy CDs and download songs, yet if they aren't buying them, how would this make a difference to losing money if they are known not to purchase CDs.

I think it should be allowed to download music for free, but if you like it, you should buy it, then again, maybe you only like a few songs from that album and the rest are just not to your liking, what should you do in that case?

Our country's law permits the downloading of music, because they feel that this is the best way for our music to get coverage, if we don't do this, then most of our local bands will never get recognition because they can't get big enough to reach the larger countries, only a small percentage make it that big and we're trying to increase our numbers.

What I think about this though, music shouldn't be stolen, it should be free to download but you should show your appreciation by buying their album. It would be good if prices of the CDs did come down though, that would benefit a lot of people, yet this would mean their expenses have to come down too for them to cover their costs. Short demo songs are no means a good way to trial their music, it just doesn't capture the whole theme of the song.


Cheers,


MC

Yeah, I agree with you guys. There is one free software that allows people to swap music countries, and that is Kaaza. It is really wonderful that this software gives a chance to share music as well as movies.

$15+.. I wish. My CD's are usually shipped from Germany due to the obscurity of most bands I listen to, making it more like $30+ for a CD and $40+ for a DVD.

i agree to a point... i mean it wouldnt be so bad if cds were not ridiculously priced.. like there are sites where you can get an entire cd downloaded for like 5 bucks... but 15+ for a cd can get kinda pricey for those who love music a lot, so it is easy to see why they would take the free route.

on the other hand, why pay when there are still ways to get it free... now im not saying its right or wrong either way.. i can agree that if you wanna sample a couple songs by an artist they should allow that to be free... but you would have to pay to get the whole album. But there are a lot of artists that give music free just to get some publicity. I know Linkin Park did that in their early years.

I've been on both sides of the issue. Yes, back when the original napster was up, I downloaded *tons* of music without paying for it. I've also helped to create music for money. So I have seen it both ways.

For a balance, I like the priciples behind the laws that have been out there for a long time. The law that says it's legal to record off the air. I love that concept because it takes music that we've already paid for (by listening to the ads) and lets us keep it. Granted, it is at a lower quality, but it's still ours to listen to whenever we want.

That way the artist still got paid from all the ads run on the radio, and we get to play it whenever we want. We only had to pay extra when we wanted a professional recording. To me that's what's missing from music on the internet. There is no option that allows us to choose between legally free, and paid for. On the internet, there is no legal way to get commercial music free. I believe there should be free copies of ALL music at a low quality that we can listen to to our hearts content without having to pay for it. Then just charge for the better quality recordings. That way we would be able to sample all the music we want, without having to resort to stealing the music. For those people that are satisfied with low quality, they would be able to have all the music they want free. For those people that want to find music that touches thier soul, they can hunt all they want, and they only have to pay for what they decide they want in a quality recording. It would keep in line with the same legal principles already out there, and would be fair to everyone.

I just wish artists got more for thier art. There are too many extremely good artists that barely make it simply because they don't produce "mainstream" music.

The Original YB!

grass grows trees die and people should be able to share music freely instead of charging them.

Who said people aren't able to share music freely?
What you mean is that people should be able to take other people's songs freely instead of paying for them.

music should be appreciated by all and we shouldn't have to pay for it.

Why shouldn't you pay for it? You haven't said a true reason. You said music should be appreciated by all, yet there are many people out there not rich enough to get a computer or get internet. If you're rich enough to get internet, why not buy music? How can music be appreciated by all by making music free to download through the internet? I agree that music should be appreciated, but how is free mp3s going to promote that idea? Wouldn't it degrade it? More people will take music for granted. People will change the information of songs and spread it around. I have downloaded mp3 files before and found the author information of songs changed. A song you thought that was made by one artist was actually made by somebody else.

I don't think downloading music should be legal at all. It's not good for the people who make the music. It does cost a lot to make quality music. Do you expect downloading movies to be legal? It's not good for everybody in the movie if people do that. They lose money and don't become rich. I think that people download music because of convenience. No money hassle, just search and get quickly. I don't think people care about morality more than convenience. I download music just because of the convenience. It's a habit that I can't change. I am too lazy to ask my dad to drive me to the mall to get an album, just so I can listen to a song that I heard was good. I use downloading to listen to see if some bands are good or to find a song that may not be available at a local record store; like foreign songs. If I really like a band/artist, then I buy their album. There are benefits in buying cds. People should do that.

Eeep, I have said a lot. Well, yeah... I disagree with you, amerijap.

maramaduke.. is soo true!! my brother is in a band that is playing on one of the stages (i forget which one) at the warped tour in camden.

making music is not easy it is very time consuming..me knowinng this because i am in a band. we practice alot and now due ot our hard work we are opening for a band at warped tour in new jersey. but yes i do take free songs, i mean why not, if the celebs. loved music like i do they would be happy people are just listening to them.

For music to be free and musicians still be able to make a living of sorts, we'd need to live in Karl Marx's perfect communist world, which isn't about to happen any time soon. Maybe I shouldn't say this (), but Morpheus checks out the Kazaa, Limewire and eDonkey networks or something like that.. I'm not particular sure but I saw it at a friend's place and you should be able to find out pretty easily on their website.