My statement had nothing to do with what Mike said in relation to And One. Actually...it was around the time of Minute to Midnight or Meteora that I read a quote from Mike. I've failed to find said quote, but he said something along the lines of not minding if someone downloads the music without paying for it. I believe he was meaning if you can't afford the music, or it isn't available where you live. I was thinking this the entire time. A CD will cost $15.00 off the shelf at a Wal-Mart. A Special Edition CD/DVD will cost $20.00. There are so many hands in that pot, the band would be lucky to get a buck a CD. Sure, with LP, they sell millions and can make some decent money for the band, but then you divide whatever that is by six members...too much of the money is going elsewhere.
why would I plop down $15 to $20 for a CD? Why would I pay 99 cents for a single song? If iTunes and Napster and all of this shit existed back in the 60s, 70s, 80s, etc., you better believe Rush fans would have been shutting down torrent websites when "Moving Pictures" leaked. I definately hate the way alot of people make this out to be like the music fans of my generation don't care about the artists because we download the shit out of everything. That's just not true. I'm an AVID music lover, I have near 200 gigs of music, 60% of it your every day regular Joe has never heard of. I'm not going to through a bunch of bullshit at anyone like "I buy the albums I like". The last album I looked for in stores, a few weeks ago actually, was the How to Destroy Angels EP, and guess what? Not one copy. I don't buy albums, unless I'm head over heels in love with the band (Nine Inch Nails). I like to buy vinyl, but that's for entirely different purposes, and even then, I buy at flea markets and things like that. These people don't need MY personal support. If I download a Nickelback album, are they really going to be crying themselves to sleep at night because one dude in Tennessee didn't burn $20 over their latest shitty album? No, they'll go back to bangin' groupies and rockin' out every night, and snorting coke with their million dollar label deal contract. The bands that care about the money are usually the ones that aren't worth supporting (oh hai gene simmons). Go to shows. Buy t-shirts and albums at said shows. Go to music festivals. Support DIY bands. Burn the record labels to the ground, and the fake millionaire rockstars that cling onto them like a newborn baby onto a tit.
A bit angrier than I would have liked, but I can agree. A decent example of a band that would burn with the labels is probably Hinder. The album cover for "Take It To The Limit" is asinine at best.
That's pretty much the point, means bands that are actually good and working hard are getting some attention/money while shitty generic radio rock bands are taking the fall. It all works out well as far as I'm concerned.
What my opinion about this is? Youtube for the music. If you want to sample music, it's a free and fine way to totally sample music. I'm sure you could scratch some cash for a CD if you honestly liked the band. For Software, such as Photoshop, or whatever, look for open-source or cheaper alternatives. If you really enjoy using software so much, then do save money to purchase it. What if a band is good, but they aren't worth the $20? Well, Itunes has the ability to purchase a song invidually. Trial Demo's exist to test software to see if you really need and enjoy using it. Illegal downloading is Illegal, no matter how much injustice the band you like suffers from the recording label and etc. @Luke: Pretty much. What about FLAC quality rips? If you've purchased the album, or songs already, I guess this would be up to the person. I personally say "Hey, you just want a HD version you already have."
Youtube for the music? I'd rather not listen to horrible youtube encoded 96kb/s songs thank you very much. Though I'm probably misinterpreting your point. Also, sometimes even (or pretty much all the time) when a band isn't worth $20 I want the whole album though, not individual tracks. It being illegal doesn't bother me at all, I believe the RIAA (though I'm not in America, they give out most of the fines and such) have stopped going out for individuals and are focusing more on large torrent trackers etc.
Listening to songs on Youtube/any of site that have not been uploaded by the band or the label is still pirating no matter how you look at it. It's music you don't pay for, accessible just about any time you'd like. To support the same results you get Youtube and not torrent-p2p sites, doesn't make any sense. It's still pirating music.
I'm not a fan of downloading music that is easily accesible on itunes. I suppose I can see it being ok if your just a little low on money but when you have enough you BUY the album. And as everyone is saying, the "download that shit quote" is way overused. He was talking about the song And One, which wasn't on the album. I downloaded No Roads Left, Step up, and the LOATR remix. I eventually got In the End live and rare so now i don't have to feel guilt for getting step up. NRL is only available on the M2M tour addition which is some what hard to find and costs like 70 bucks. And the LOATR remix didn't even release in the U.S.
I won't pay for a download of an album unless it's a case where the artist only released the album as a download. I prefer having physical copies of albums. Actually, I just recently downloaded A7X's newest album but I have every intent of getting the physical copy of the album in the near future.
In the case of music I find that I spend more on a band if I just download what I want and then buy tickets later, and I get a better experience for it. I would never have spent $215 on tickets to see Iron Maiden (front row) if I hadn't first been able to download everything they've done. Same thing goes for Linkin Park.. I spend a lot of money on this band, and I do buy the albums but I'm also not ashamed to download the instant it becomes available. I got into the band because someone decided to put In The End to some dragon ball z clips, which is a massive copyright violation.
Putting "illegal" in quotes is something I'm not sure I agree with. I'm a very frequent pirate and I'm not ashamed of it, but I do know it's basically and undeniably illegal. It's the stigma and punishments attached to it that I disagree with. First, I don't think of it as "stealing". If you buy some DVD's they're prefaced with a PSA about how "You wouldn't steal a car", "You wouldn't steal a purse" etc. saying you shouldn't steal movies or presumably music etc. as well. The thing is, grabbing a DVD, case and all off of a shelf isn't the same thing as downloading it off the internet. Think of it this way- You're not stealing a car, you're making an exact duplicate of that car with no harm or disturbance of the owner. Piracy isn't theft, it's making and sharing a copy of an original, typically legitimately purchased item. I also think it's sickening the way people are slapped with hundreds of thousand dollar lawsuits over a modest amount of downloaded mp3's or movies. Companies like the RIAA are stuck in times where if you took a tape and duplicated it or otherwise manually copied an album it was probably a bigger deal. With the internet as prevalent as it is now and as rapidly as it's grown these past ten years it's impractical to pursue copyright in such a manner. Any file is a few clicks a way to any person and to fine and imprison every person that's ever pirated would be staggering and unrealistic. The best thing to do would be to introduce a business model that incorporates the new ways we look at and use media, not stubbornly oppose it. I'm all for protecting one's intellectual property as a musician and artist myself, but when you're suing elderly women for hundreds of thousands over a handful of songs their grandchildren downloaded, what are we supposed to honestly believe you're protecting?
I apologise if me downloading without paying for a musicians album means he can't afford the full price private jet, but some of us keep our money for necessities... South Park hit the nail on the head with the piracy issue...
I never used to buy cds ever, with the ease of downloading entire albums in 15 minutes without costing you a cent - who would go to the effort of walking into a cd store and spending your hard earned cash on something that could possibly be a waste? Now for me its about availabilty, I live in a town that had one independent cd store, which has since shut down and we are left with one shop from the chain, Sanity They dont have alot of alternative stuff in there, they keep the top 50 and then a few albums from each genre and as much as I like Slipknot and Cradle of Filth, sometimes thats not what I am after Being an avid death metal/black metal fan, some of the titles I am looking for are not and probably will never be on the shelves of Sanity. Sometimes they can order them in for me, sometimes they arent even available in Australia! I asked about ordering a Within Temptation cd about 5 years ago and they told me it would cost $65 and take 6 weeks to arrive....why wouldnt I download?
I buy hard copies of my favorite seven or eight bands' material... I'll purchase a well over a hundred dollars a year in music on itunes on top of that, and I go to a ton of concerts and buy a lot of merch. I download a lot on top of that, but put it this way... I saw Saosin on Projekt Rev in 2007, I didn't know who they were at the time, and I went home and Limewired a few of their songs... To this day, they are one of my favorite bands, I've spent at least a hundred dollars on their merchandise, I've been to two of their headlining shows since then, and I own two hard copies of both of their studio albums. Moral of the story? If I hadn't gone home that night and downloaded a few Saosin songs that night, I probably never would have gotten into them in the first place and spent money on the band other ways. Similar things have happened with other bands as well, where I'll download a song or two and then really get into them and end up purchasing a shirt or going to their concerts, and buying their music in the future.... I think at the end of the day it evens out.
While downloading music does have its advantages, for me, it doesn't have the same effect as buying the CD itself, instead of getting it for free. I download torrents every now and then, on artists that are new, or their CD is hard to find/too expensive if found, but other than that, I love having hard copies of music. It adds on to my physical collection. Now when it comes to programs, I am all for downloading torrents on them. I really don't think it is necessary to spend 1000 dollars on ONE application, just for recreational use. It seems kind of ludicrous that these companies charge an arm and a leg, just so you can add a simple border to your text. Now with that said, downloading too much can get you in a LOT of trouble. The RIAA and the FCC seem to have a stick up their ass when it comes to things like "illegal" downloading, and have means of monitoring too much activity like that.