Illegal Music Downloads Are Wrong – Here’s Why. Really.
“Oh, so what if I download the latest Michael Jackson song. Everybody does it, Besides, they make millions of dollars anyway.”
This is what a rep for a company that promotes music to college radio, a very young guy indeed, as I doubt anyone of my vintage would be able to get anywhere within a mile of a college dorm without toilets flushing en masse and hard drives being formatted all at once, told me. (Is the preceding a legal sentence? Hmmm. Hell: if Joyce could do it, why not me? (I?)) Anyhow, he insisted that college students couldn’t afford music on the scale the music companies (“corporate music robber barons,” he called them) expected of them. They had to steal it in order to fulfill their “cultural right.”
Okay, okay – one too many kegs might be the explanation here. Let’s set aside the pro-youngster, anti-establishmentarianisms for a moment and look at the basics. This guy has chosen a career in the music business. I will tell you that music promotion is just about as cut-throat a career as you can get outside of the movie business and real estate, in ascending order. What this young fellow is saying is “Sure, take my income away from me, guys, it’s cool. Grab all the illegal stuff you can get your hands on – it’s your right, dudes. And when those twenty or thirty college music bands can’t get record deals because the big hits subsidize all the small label projects, that’ll be cool, too, ’cause music is free once it’s in the air . . .”
WTF?
Bad news here, for you fine folks. The Music Industry is exactly that – an industry. They make things, in this case, something complex that you can hear and possibly like, and they seek your participation through the favor of a purchase. To assure that you won’t make off with their product, they have only laws to protect them, unlike that lawn mower your Dad’s been drooling over at the local Sear’s. He can’t just waltz in and grab it up. Music is no less a product than that lawnmower.
“Oh, well, it’s just me a few of my friends . . .” and a few million other people that nab the latest Fifty Cent track off of your hard drive because you didn’t realize the P2P (peer-to-peer) software you’re using is sharing your download folder. And besides, didn’t your mother tell you it was wrong to steal even ONE candy bar from the 7-11?
Okay, okay, So I’m being a codger, right? More bad news: this stealing affects you, directly. Here’s how:
– Independant bands with no way of mass marketing their work without it getting ripped off and no way to make it up in volume become prey to the largest labels.
– The largest labels choose ONLY what is likely to at least BREAK EVEN.
– If the music doesn’t sound like something else, it’s not going to get released. Period.
– If it does sound like something else, only the music that fits the marketing direction of the company will be picked. NOTHING controversial or political will be allowed: believe it.
– Therefore, you get to hear ONLY the most mundane, Spears-Aquilera-Snoop Dogg-inspired twaddle available. Is that what you want? Uninspired crap that makes you cry for the wrong reasons? Cry because you’re soooo bored?
But, as they say in the infomercials, that’s not all:
– Big music companies could care less. They use the RIAA as a tool, and will continue to do so, to harass those unable to protect themselves because it gets numbers on their board. And if music ceases to be profitable, they will find another way to make money BECAUSE THEIR SHAREHOLDERS WILL DEMAND IT.
– Small labels that could release short runs of music that might be new, challenging or just plain experimental will simply not be able to break even – and the music will disappear becuase on the main, musicians don’t know squat about the music business and won’t be able to make it happen.
– Independent designers, printers, engineers, recordists, manufacturers and all those other fine folk that exist for the large- to small-sized independants will have to look for other work – permanently. After all, isn’t the economy in a upturn now? Music releases, even so-called vanity releases have tapered off quite a bit. A waste of a lifetime of talent and experience up in smoke.
And, oh, by the way, let’s not forget the musicians:
– What does it take to make it as a working musician? I’ll tell you: the formula is quite simple. 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration, 25% good luck, 19.2% excellent timing, 32% heartbreak (paying your dues,) 61% more good luck and a lifetime of education and practice, usually no less than six hours a day, if you count working time, often more if you include travel. Musicians are cool and easy-going, right? WRONG: take it from someone whose worked in the industry for more than a quarter century: they are precise, serious and serious concerned about whether the labe or distributor or publisher or agent or manager or club owner will rip them off. And now, they have to worry about you, too?
Until you can make your own music that’s worth something to someone else in terms of interest, don’t steal these cat’s sounds. They’ve worked a lifetime getting up to that point. Reward them. Give the gift of music. Buy their music. Shucks – listen on the raido if you’re truly broke. ITunes and a half-dozen other joints are about a buck or song, so you don’t have to buy “overpriced” albums (that’s another story for another day,) so there’s no excuse.
Unless you’re lazy. Or you don’t care about someone else’s talent, job or livelihood. Or you’re just a plain old, down-an’-dirty, lyin’, stealin’, cheatin-ass crook. In which case, I don’t want you to hear my talent’s music and I will use whatever technical, legal or social means to make sure that comes to pass. It’s my mission, and if you actually cared about music, it would be yours, too.