Point of Discussion: The Ethics of Downloading Music - Music

Hayden

Happymeal wrote:

I actually wrote a fairly long report in regards to piracy a year or so back assessing piracy.

Same. I did a University paper last semester about music and film piracy. Turns out, at the end of the day, it mainly only effects indie films and upcoming musicians.

As for me personally, I illegally download or stream 100% of music before I buy it. It's not like I'm going to be hearing the new Zs album on the radio to see if I like it or not. I do my best to buy all the albums from living artists that I like though.

I think the popular defense is that you aren't actually stealing from the artist(s), you're just sharing it. Which is really no different than lending your CD to a friend. The only cuts are from potential accounts receivable, which is a pretty uncertain and easily adjustable number.
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rayword45

Gender: Male
Age: 26

I'm imagining a world where you had to risk $15 for what good be 40 minutes of good music, or 40 minutes of ass.

That was before the internet.

Yeah I pirate music, I'll support artists through concerts.

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Gender: Female
Age: 38

I buy mp3's they don't cost a lot of money. Sometimes I don't buy them though because I run out of money.

Kiki

rayword45 wrote:

I'll support artists through concerts.

Very brave thing to do Laughing

More often than not they are bad places to go. For some of the louder acts it is very much acquired taste.

Patman360
Serenity Now

Gender: Male
Age: 31
Location: Cork, Ireland

Moderator

I'm in favour of piracy, for a number of reasons. Where I live there's a problem with the supply of internet to my house, meaning I effectively can't use streaming services of any sort, I can download, but an album usually takes a day plus, I do enjoy it in a way, makes the wait to get an album all the more exciting at times. i do buy music when I can and if I could I would own all the albums I love on vinyl, but at the moment I'm a student paying my way through uni, buying music slips down the priority list, listening to music however doesn't, I love to listen to music, should I be denied that because I have less money than others? Nah.
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RepoMan

rayword45 wrote:

I'm imagining a world where you had to risk $15 for what good be 40 minutes of good music, or 40 minutes of ass.

Exactly. Unless u were a rich kid, you really couldn't afford to b as adventurous. I'm still geeking out how on awesome streaming is with stuff like Spotify. It really is a music lovers paradise right now.

RepoMan

Patman360 wrote:

I'm in favour of piracy, for a number of reasons. Where I live there's a problem with the supply of internet to my house, meaning I effectively can't use streaming services of any sort, I can download, but an album usually takes a day plus, I do enjoy it in a way, makes the wait to get an album all the more exciting at times. i do buy music when I can and if I could I would own all the albums I love on vinyl, but at the moment I'm a student paying my way through uni, buying music slips down the priority list, listening to music however doesn't, I love to listen to music, should I be denied that because I have less money than others? Nah.

Well said. mY sentiments exactly. Poor kids adults deserve good music too! Laughing

I really think for the bands we listen to concerts are the best way to support them anyways and pirating music let's you know what concerts you really want to see. Songs on the internet are pretty much advertisements for different concerts and t-shirts, and collectables such as vinyl.

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Gender: Female
Age: 38

But what about the people who engineer and master the albums? Or musicians who's way of making music doesn't lend itself to live performance? And I know this community pays attention to music distributed freely, but a lot of music fans I've seen don't really download music for free unless it's something that costs money. Like the label investing the time and money into putting it out is necessary for them to consider listening. That's always seemed problematic to me.

meccalecca
Voice of Reason

Gender: Male
Location: The Land of Enchantment

RockyRaccoon wrote:

The comparison that really made me think a long time back was renting CDs at a public library.

Yup. I've long thought about the concept that as a society we've accepted the idea of publicly sharing books as knowledge and fine art similarly, but for some reason music hasn't been placed in the same realm even though it has a similar cultural impact on society.

The bulk of the reason any of us are so obsessed with music is because of pirating, so it's tough to put up a fight against it. If my brothers hadn't taped me their favorite albums, I'm sure I wouldn't care as much as I do.
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Infinity183

Gender: Female

Usually, I strongly prefer to purchase my music, digitally or physically. It's completely straightforward to look something up on iTunes or Amazon Music and then buy it for a reasonable price. I'd rather respect the artist I'm listening to than just convert their entire catalogue for free. Even if sound quality is a big deal to you and you prefer collecting vinyls to getting the online copies, you'd have to obtain the music physically, anyway.

Personally, I think it's a huge convenience, this day in age, to have programs like Spotify, which essentially allow you to listen through any album in its entirety without having to pay anything, even if you have to sit through adds every few tracks. This makes it a lot easier to experiment with different artists and collections before you decide which one you want to purchase and listen to with complete freedom.