Illegal Song Downloading.

I do this a lot because like you, I don't have the money. Most of the bands I listen to don't even care if you illegally download their songs. You gotta remember that money doesn't grow on trees and a lot of people are lucky just to have internet and a computer. I don't think it's wrong as long as you are providing the artist with support for their music, especially if it's a song that has saved your life or simply helped you through a rough time. It's getting so now that CDs are losing popularity because everyone uses an MP3 player/iPod/iPhone whatever.

For me, I don't have a job. Both me and my dad only get so much from SSI. Plus he gets a 200 dollar insurance check. All of those goes toward things we need. You would think it's a lot of money, if you think about it... but it's not. It doesn't even last us a month before we are scraping the bottom of the barrel. I spend my money on things that entertain me my short attention span. It takes a lot to remedy my attention span, even games.

I do agree with a lot of what is said. Sometimes the cost of CDs or songs, especially on itunes, is a lot of money. I've seen their prices for certain things. It can be costly even with a bunch of itunes cards just to get enough to buy two CDs, if not one. It depends on the rate of popularity.

A thought occurred to me today that we pretty much only discuss bands and artists today affected by illegal downloading.

What about classical music? Beethoven is dead. Is it morally wrong or should it be different to download his music?

@ dru vs. slut shaming
Beethoven's works are public domain. But there are performers, like the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and conducters, like Herbert von Karajan who've got known by playing Beethoven, because their interpretation of Beethoven's works is outstanding and unique. These people make money and support themselves also by selling their CD's, not only tickets for their concerts.
Personally, I feel even worse about downloading classical music illegally. I feel like there's so much money rolling on the rest of the music industry, but most orchestras seem to be struggling to survive nowadays, at least the ones I know.

@ Filth in the Beauty
What if it were just it being played on the piano?

@ dru vs. slut shaming
same thing, only difference is that a pianist who is employed by an orchestra/recording company will probably feel the consequences of illegal downloading less directly than solo ones.

C418 releases a lot of his music for free on Bandcamp. The rest of it, yeah, I get it elsewhere, but hella! Free tunes! Good guy Rosenfeld!

I try to buy music legally for the most part, although every once and a while there's a song I can't seem to find legally. No offense to a band, but if I only want one song, I shouldn't have to buy an entire album to get that song. Especially when it's a compilation album of a bunch of artists and I don't like most of the artists on there.

I recently downloaded a song because of that because I just couldn't find a way to purchase it. However, if I do find a way to purchase it, I will buy it.

The only time I've ever (my parents actually) bought music was when I didn't know about downloading music. I had my parents buy me CDs in elementary school and part of middle school. Since then, I haven't paid a cent for music I want. Too broke.

I'm sorry, but why is this a question? If it is illegal, than everyone should be against it. Now I know some execeptions apply, but still. People worked hard on making those songs and you are downloding them for free without a second thought to the artist? Not fair at all.

I download a lot of music from websites. It mostly started out with YouTube, ripping songs to put on my iPod when I came across an even better website and now I spend most of my time on there.

The thing is, instead of just illegally downloading their music and going on my merry way, I listen to the artist, get a real feel for them, and if I like them enough I will go out and buy the physical copy. On top of that, I frequently go to concerts of my favorite bands (including bands that I've discovered via illegal downloading) and buy merch. I might not be paying for the album right then and there, but I end up paying for it somehow in someway.

@ January Rose
That argument would make sense if everything illegal was immoral and if everything legal was moral, but the law is never that simple.

Also, bringing it back to music, the price of albums is almost always decided by the record companies, and not the actual artist themselves. In fact, when it comes to physical CDs, at least, I think the artist doesn't even make 10 cents on the dollar for it. So it's not really the artist you're hurting, it's a record company. Several bands throughout history have gotten mad at their record company and actually encouraged their fans to illegally download an album instead of buying it.

One of the more famous cases of this was Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails when he found out that the record company he was with was artificially inflating the price of the band's newest CD in Australia just because they knew fans would still buy it. His response to that was to not only tell fans to steal the band's music instead of buying it, but I've even heard that he was one of the people that had uploaded it in the first place.

Also, more than one band has actually done better in sales when they allow fans to choose their own price for what they pay for an album rather than letting a corporation set the price. Radiohead's best selling record happened that way, with the option of getting it free or paying whatever people wanted to.

Half the bands I listen to don't even care if people illegally download their songs. As long as people are digging their music they're happy.

I actually don't download music that often, instead I spend about 80% of my time listening to music using YouTube.

However when I get a really good song (or album) stuck in my head, or if it's an upcoming album of one of my fave artists/groups/bands, then I will strongly consider either buying the album physically or downloading a few of the songs I'm addicted to off iTunes so that I can listen to it in the car or on my phone without internet connection. But if I were to do that for every song I've ever liked, I wouldn't survive; far too expensive. I once tried paying for every song I wanted on my iPhone and then somehow managed to lock my PIN, so I had to go to the bank and even the bank clerk was surprised at how much I'd spent on iTunes.

So I'm always keeping a close eye on how much I'm spending, and if I think I've spent enough recently but come across yet another song I really want to have on my iPhone then I will consider downloading it illegally.

Another consideration to add into the mix is that I'm often influenced to buy or download the songs when I've been to their concert, so if I've paid for the concert then would downloading a few songs illegally seem so bad? Like this, it seems very hard to weigh the pros and cons of illegally downloading music.

If I were an artist, I think I would prefer for my music to spread and reach more people rather than ensure that each download is paid for - I understand why it's hard to pay for so many songs all of the time. If someone who downloaded it for free then played the track on their phone and it caught their friend's attention, then that would make me feel satisfied that the music is being spread; and the more people who know about the music, the greater chance there is of it reaching those who can afford to spend every time they appreciate something.

The world doesn't just consist of rich or rich and poor, there are many in-betweens. I think that this is important for an artist to consider.

Just leaving this here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGM8PT1eAvY

I see a lot of posts about how it's uncool to download songs - which in most cases it probably is - but what about songs or albums that are available by the band or their company on YouTube, Spotify, or other FREE music apps? It takes internet/data to run those, so is it an issue to download an album if it's ALREADY available for free play? I know for a fact that not much is made per play because a band I'm friends with asked if I could leave their new album on with the volume muted, reply applied, while I'm asleep or away from my house.

Divided:

If I were an artist, I think I would prefer for my music to spread and reach more people rather than ensure that each download is paid for - I understand why it's hard to pay for so many songs all of the time. If someone who downloaded it for free then played the track on their phone and it caught their friend's attention, then that would make me feel satisfied that the music is being spread; and the more people who know about the music, the greater chance there is of it reaching those who can afford to spend every time they appreciate something.

There are actually a lot of bands that have said they want their music available to anyone no matter what they can pay, for free in general, and other things of the like. The corporate companies they're under still charge because obviously a profit has to be made because ~they put their money into this band~ IMO THE ARTISTS SHOULD BE MAKING 100% So for me if an artists says this, I have like zero qualms about illegally downloading. They gave permission, the corporate companies that are destroying so much didn't.

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