Is it because you are broke, try before you buy, or music sucks and it is not worth buying but download it just to hear it and delete it later?
It's my main avenue of finding new music. Usually I'll buy the cd if I like an artist and download a bunch of his songs.
"* Warning: Discussion or links about acquiring illegal downloads will be removed, and you may be banned."
Anyway, I decided to stop downloading music when I was younger and got a job so there was no longer any excuse for it. However, I continue to download music to provide content for a radio show I DJ for, since I like providing new content. I put it all in a folder that I plan to delete once my radio show is done.
I download music because the music I listen to is available to download for free in the first place.
I download because I am broke and most of the stuff I like is very hard to find in retail, at least for a reasonable price.
Most of the music I listen to comes from video games or is made by amateurs. This stuff isn't for sale, so I can't do anything other than download it.
Although I do listen to some stuff which is commercial... that, I usually download because that's more convenient. I've downloaded a fair deal of stuff 'illegally', but also I've bought some CDs too and downloaded stuff from the iTunes store.
Because I can't really think of a good reason not to just pirate it. I might want to buy the actual cd but I only listen to music on my mp3 player or computer so paying for music just seems pointless.
Pirating music is not gonna stop the musicians from making music, so meh.
If I didn't download some music I wouldn't even know it ever existed.
If I want to thanks the musicians, I'd buy mercandise straight form their site, and go to their concerts.
Because I think it's a crime to buy music. Nowadays anyone can play and publish music - you don't need fucking publishers. It's not about being famous, it's about sharing your music. Anyone who doesn't understand this probably won't do a good musician anyway.
Buying music, you do not help the person who wrote the music, nor those who performed it; you're only helping corporate fucksticks who got millions and investors and friends and all that sort of fuckshit aristocratic pre-old motherfucking shit that was brought to america since colombus put a boiled egg in his ass in front of an audience (women and children included). Needless to say, everyone was impressed. But I'm not. Don't buy music, all you're buying is a fucking CD and the case and all that crap morons made. It's all about the sound, and you can't sell sound.
I wouldn't buy a painting, I wouldn't buy a song, I wouldn't buy a movie, I wouldn't buy a book, I wouldn't buy anything that is related to art, EVER. I've never ever met a honest artist that would want me to buy instead of get it free.
Shits already too expensive for the lower-classes. You can go fuck yourself with your anti-piracy videos, advetrisements, psyops, CIA MI5 motherfuckers fuck
The bands already got their money when they signed the record contract. Pirating music is not harming the band, its harming the record companies. And personally, fuck them.
The idea that artists will continue to make art even if they never get paid is bullshit. Rather, there will just be a preponderance of bad free art. Without patronage, there is no art. This is just common sense, do you really think an artist is going to keep making music if he or she can't afford to live? If you still don't believe me, just look at history--great advancements in art didn't come until there were patrons rich enough to support artists.
I do agree that buying mainstream records does not help the actual artist very much. If possible, buy from independent labels that give a fair share to the artists, or directly from artists themselves (there are an increasing number of artists that offer this.) But whatever you do, don't try to make yourself feel better by imagining that pirating music isn't a crime and doesn't hurt anyone. I don't care if you do pirate stuff, just don't be a self-righteous hypocrite about it.
And >>10, I don't know where you get off calling yourself a "lower-class." If you have access to the internet, you can afford to buy music. Don't complain about being "lower-class" until you can only afford the basic necessities of life.
>>12
Internet access: 20€ a month. And useful for more than just music.
ONE CD: 15~20€.
I wish people would stop using "but you can pay for internet" as an excuse to tell people they're not poor. I pay for internet because it makes up all of my hobbies, because I can't really pay for anything else. It allows me to read stuff, see stuff, hear stuff.
And FYI, as of 2009, Internet is becoming one of the basic necessities of life, of life in modern society at least.
Whilst I agree with the "fuck the middle man" attitude, would you still download up-coming and artists not in the commercial top 100?
> The idea that artists will continue to make art even if they never get paid is bullshit.
That's how it where, that's how it is, that's how it'll be.
> Rather, there will just be a preponderance of bad free art.
Which art is bad?
> Without patronage, there is no art.
Wow this man has been living in a cave.
> This is just common sense, do you really think an artist is going to keep making music if he or she can't afford to live?
Common sense? The more I hear this, the more it loses its meaning. Artists have already done this, it has already happened and it will happen again. Affording to live is not 'having a car, a job, a house, a watch, a computer and a wife'. Humans can survive by eating roots if they want to, god damnit.
> If you still don't believe me, just look at history--great advancements in art didn't come until there were patrons rich enough to support artists.
Which are the great advancements you speak of?
> But whatever you do, don't try to make yourself feel better by imagining that pirating music isn't a crime and doesn't hurt anyone.
A whole song is simply a representation of the original sound in a simple number. That's right. The whole song is a simple number. That number is the sum of the powers of the binary digits that the file is made of. If you think pirating music is a crime, you believe that knowing a number is a crime.
Moreover, I'm not a fucking pussy. I wouldn't try to make myself feel better just to feel better - I enjoy sadness the same way I enjoy happiness, and I don't give a shit about anything. Since you went into the subject of ethics and morals, I've read about that too. Do you know it's been proven that there couldn't possibly be ultimate ethics/morals? That means if you're saying that downloading music is a crime, then it's relative to your position in the argument and not an absolute truth. Get it?
> I don't care if you do pirate stuff, just don't be a self-righteous hypocrite about it.
Well, I don't care, and you can be anything you want to without me caring. There.
> And >>10, I don't know where you get off calling yourself a "lower-class."
I'm >>10 and I did not call myself lower-class. Read my post again.
> If you have access to the internet, you can afford to buy music.
Faulty logic. It's funny because you made a logic mistake twice. Once assuming I have access to the internet simply because I was able to make a post here, second because you believe having access to the internet somehow makes affording music true.
> Don't complain about being "lower-class" until you can only afford the basic necessities of life.
Which are? Eating and sleeping? You know, I have to pay the motherfucking government to do that too, just because I'm doing it in its territory. The government is like a giant dog that took a piss in the land and proclaimed it its territory. Maybe if I disappear in the wilderness they'll leave me alone.
> as of 2009, Internet is becoming one of the basic necessities of life
Purposedly. It's more convenient for banks, for the police, et cetera.
>>14
Yes I would. And then I'd distribute it in the whole neighborhood.
>>15 here
by the way, I thought of a counterargument to your awesome argument 'if you can afford the internet, you can afford to buy music'. Are you ready? Here it goes:
If you can afford music instruments, then you can afford to live. (or, as you said, the "basic necessities" of life).
> > as of 2009, Internet is becoming one of the basic necessities of life
>Purposedly. It's more convenient for banks, for the police, et cetera.
Hence why I added, right before you cut my sentence "of modern life at least". It makes the so much hated administration easier to work with. Less paper, less phone, less moving all over the city. And where I live, you start to see some administrative stuff that you can only do on the internet (of course, you can go to the city hall and they'll lend you a restricted acces if you really need it).
Piracy helps stop Global Warming.
Instead of driving to get CDs, buying pre-packaged software from megacorporations, and wasting energy, you can help fight Global Warming by using P2P. Help save resources, fight pollution and save the environment - It's what Jesus would do!
I troll music blogs like some snob so I can find cool music to sample from. Most of these are out of press or what not, so I wouldn't have heard them anyway.
*lurk
I listen to a lot of electronic music and psychedelic rock; it can be hard to get music I'm interested in through any other means than piracy because a lot of older stuff is out of print. Where am I going to find an old Factor 5 single? How the hell am I going to get ahold of a Tokyo Kid Brothers album without paying $150 for a rare vinyl copy? Piracy is the only solution.
I'm descended from pirates. So it's kind of in my blood.
I normally buy the cd if I like the band, but if I just want one or two songs I pirate it. I dont see the point in spending 15 for a cd that I wont use all of.
I would NEVER be able to listen to as much music as I do if I didn't download. Seriously. I DL and listen to just about anything anyone recommends to me, ever, as well as just random crap, bands I'm going to see live, bands that have played with bands I like, bands bands I like cite as influences, etc. Even if all this music were legally available online for money (and a significant minority of it isn't; obscure/defunct acts etc.), I'd have to be like a millionaire.
I see the bands live whenever possible. If I truly love their album, and can afford it at the time, I'll buy a hard copy at the show. Example: the new A Place to Bury Strangers record, which is amazing. I paid $15 for music I already had (and bought a poster) because they are that good.
Some of the songs I download are hard to buy anywhere... besides that, if I could purchase it, it would cost so much $$$... then I would have to wait half a month for it to arrive to my house...
downloading it makes it easier and faster to get/\.
If I want to support an artist that I really like I'll go to their show. I won't buy a cd (which is more inconvenient than downloading) and have most of the money go to the record company.
Why not?
It comes with the electronic music genre.
Because I'm a horrible scavenging pirate with no scruples.
Because of the free market; I am offered a better product for a lower cost via downloading, I am a capitalist. I would consider purchasing from record companies at a higher cost if at least the product was better.
The shipping price for CDs is ridiculous now that Amazon Japan has gone EMS-only for overseas orders. Also, many of the albums I download are out of print.
if I can get it...i d/l on the spot. If I LOVE IT, then buy the CD for authenticity.
I only download as a last-of-the-last resort when I can't get a hold of the music I want legally for a reasonable price.
So I don't have to listen to shit on the radio.
Music is no longer an art to be created but a product to manufactured. At least in America and Brittan anyway. 90% the music I like is not available to buy anywhere anyway. AND I'm American in Maine. So there are no jobs for me to get money from to pay for shit music.