Perhaps some of you indie-rock fans had heard about the band Radiohead giving their album out for free from their website instead of charging $$. The main reason this is getting the publicity that is it is because despite the fact that the album was free, more people pirated the album than downloading it FOR FREE from radioheads site. "Experts" (and myself) say that it's because people are just used to downloading the albums they want from places such as Bit Torrent etc and their actions were not intended to be a slap in the face to Radiohead's efforts.
What interests me is not solely the fact that more people pirated it, rather it's the question of the future of music sales.
Most of us know that bands/artists do not make much if any money off of CD sales, their primary income comes from shows and endorsements. While some bands ::cough cough:: Metallica don't condone fans "stealing" or pirating their music others, System of a Down and obviously Radiohead are more accepting of this reality. How many more artists will follow suit and stop selling their albums and start giving their music away? Hopefully more. In my eyes music isn't about greed, rather sharing your abilities, gifts, ideas, talent, etc.
When the RIAA sues some average Joe for downloading a few thousand songs do the artists get that money? I don't know for sure but I doubt it, my instincts tell me that the record companies get it.
I am optimistic that more artists will be giving their music away "for free", after all isn't it a compliment to them when we go to any means possible to get their music, even if that means risking law suits?
If I ever for some reason got sued for the music I downloaded back in the Napster days I would personally write a letter to every artist and ask them if they cared that I downloaded their music instead of purchasing a CD (which often I did after sampling their music), then we'd see how that suit would end up. Our justice system is only changed when a precedent is set and someone needs to do that soon.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Is Best Buy About To Go Out Of Business?
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Your last idea about writing letters to each of the artists sounds like a good idea, but I am fairly certain that the record companies own the recorded music. In that sense, it wouldn't really matter legally whether the artist cared or not, it would come down to the record companies caring.
Regardless, I think you're right about people not intending to insult Radiohead, but rather reverting to what they know. I think people just downloaded it like they always did because they know it's free (thanks to the huge swarm of press around it) and it's the most convenient way for them to do it. In fact, I would think Radiohead would thank people for not killing their site with 5 million downloads in a single day!
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