The day the music died...

[hellziggy]

Someone screwed one of my LJ friends.

Her post, in part: "Someone NARC'D on me.
This is why I'm not going to upload anymore of the CD character mixes to my LJ. NICE. I love getting scary emails from webhosts saying I'm breaking the law.
Folks, I support buying music. I also support my right to do with my music that I've purchased what I want - and I make NO PROFIT from sharing a handful of music files with friends. *cough* Oh, and that whole "go buy the entire albums" comment that I say in every post? Means nothing? Got it.
It's not kiddie porn, people, it's MUSIC. Nice work, anony mousie. (And this was from a FLOCKED post, too.)"


This just ticks me off beyond description.
Having received several of the mixes from this girl, I can tell you that judging by the variety on those discs, her CD collection DWARFS hellbob's.
She shares music because she loves it and she wants other people to find music they love.
I have several CDs that I only picked up because I heard the music on a disc from her.
Two years ago I had never even heard of the Old 97's or Lesbians on Ecstacy.

I'm a strong believer that DRM & the RIAA are bad for music sales. In this day and age people don't have to rely on the radio stations to tell them what music is out there. The internet is a powerful way for music to be heard.

If your music is good enough, putting a few songs out there for free can only help sales. I don't buy albums that I don't know any songs on. I only have a small handful of artists that I will buy a new release from without hearing it first. All others, I want to know what I'm getting. If I hear one or two songs free and I like them, I will buy your album. If they suck, I won't. But if I can't hear your music at all, I still won't. Therefore if you are a band you have the potential to make more money by putting music out for free.

I was thinking about how much money I've spent because of getting to hear a song or two free before buying an album. I can document over $1000 if you include concert DVDs and concert tickets. This isn't even including the CDs that I know people bought from hearing mix discs I made (ex. freyjakj had never heard Mason Jennings before getting my Minnesota music disc with him on it. She has now purchased all his CDs) and concerts that friends have gone with to after I introduced them to new music.

I hope she will continue to make her awesome CD mixes, and if she has to go back to burning actual discs and mailing them to get them out, I will gladly paypal money to help cover the expense.
I also plan to start trying to listen to more podsafe and Creative Commons music that can be shared rather than the commercial music. If they don't want my money, I really don't need to give it to them. As I find new music I like, I plan to update Sharon's "Screw the RIAA" page of legal music downloads! more often too.


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Comments

[dibsy.livejournal.com]

Totally with you on that one, love. The amount of music that I've illegally downloaded and then bought legitimately is pretty much double what I used to spend purely on legitimate music. Add to that the concert tickets, and the many people I've introduced to these bands, well...fuck the RIAA is about all I've got.

It's a profit deal

[mle292.livejournal.com]

I have no link, only that I heard once that there was research to see how much Napster (at the time) affected music sales. OF COURSE, Music sales went up because of Napster according to the survey.

Still, large corporations didn't have control over the radio and weren't able to force their most chosen fourty or fifty artists on listeners. Bands like Old 97s and Lesbians On Ectasy would never find airplay on commercial radio.

I remember commercial radio and it was AWFUL. Still is. I'm delighted, ecstatic and overjoyed that there are other options for music nowadays.

[freyjakj.livejournal.com]

Yes! You shared one or two Mason Jennings songs with me. I fell in instant music love. I haven't bought an actual CD yet, but I have purchased quite a few songs of his on I-tunes. Key word is PURCHASED. I WILL end up purchasing them TWICE actually, because I enjoy him so much I will get his disks as well one day. I also have taken my I-Pod to both my parents and my in-laws and have played Mason Jennings for them. ...the advertising goes on and on...

I remember the simple days...the days when making a mix tape from the radio, friends, or library was NOT looked at askance. I remember when in college it was encouraged, nay, expected to copy the songs we were learning on a tape and listen to them over and over again. So what if it is digital now?

No, I am not in favor of entire albums being downloadable for free to a million people at once. However, when people like your friend get it for sharing a handful of songs for a handful of people, it seems to me to be making the purpose of the law trivial.

And the fact that it was friendslocked. OMG. Poor thing! I cannot imagine! I hope she weeds out who it was, somehow. Sheesh!!