[X] My Assistant

[Lord Raven]

A decent point is that South Park producers are still developing episodes and they encourage people to download their stuff.

[Genidoxian]

I honestly don't think that illegal music downloading is enforced enough to bother making a big stink about it. Really, MPAA, either enforce your rules or just let it go.

Big thumbs-up to the donation idea. Let's think about it: free music = wider fanbase. Wider fanbase = more people attending concerts + buying merch + etc.

[Elito]

I think company's should just shut up and let file sharing...thats the best for everybody...

doesn't everybody have money to buy that...

This post has been edited by Eliot Kovach: Nov 24 2009, 02:41 AM

[Villerar]

Could anybody arguing artists only receive a few cents for a record substantiate this in any way? It sounds like one of those tall tales everybody hears and then starts imitating without checking.

I personally think criminalising downloading woul be one of the worst things ever to happen, mainly because it cannot be enforced without violating privacy and the record labels will push for those laws to be enforced, inevitably violating our privacy.

I prefer to distance myself from the "it should all be free" mentality, though.

[shou75]

ahhh the smell of fresh lawsuits in the morning
or the sweet smell of copyright papers fresh from the printer.

Let the artist the decide his on his own and still people are gonna share the music for free anyway.

This post has been edited by shou75: Dec 12 2009, 09:36 PM

[John Richard]

I don't think its a good practice to have free music, but that will create an easy flow for their growth.

[Dazmi]

Do I think music should be free? No, there's no money in that. If you like an album, just buy it. It'll not only be in better quality than your pirated mp3's, but you'll have that fancy CD (unless you choose to buy your low quality mp3's on iTunes). I myself still buy CD's, and I'm happy to support the artists that I like and not the ones I don't.

I miss the idea of used CD's, you know, low prices. I fear video games and movies might be the same way someday, you know, download only.

Then again, how is it any different than recording music off of the radio? I've thought about it and this isn't the radio, it's the internet. Based on audio quality alone, I want the idea of purchased music to live on. Also, you gotta appreciate that cover art.

[Kiseki Lin]

Personally, to me, it can go either way. I like to buy things to support the artists/group/etc. especially if I like them. However, in some cases, it's hard to even get some of the music i.e. you live in Boston but the music you listen to comes from the Philippines. There's not always the choice of being able to buy it by just strolling into a music store. Plus, there are regional disks that may not always work with a certain system. I know a couple CDs I bought from Japan didn't work with my systems. It really sucked.

[lorks]

For indie bands, then no, you should pay.

For big name bands, it should be free, because their merch and tour tickets will cost more and they will already have a stockpile of money from when they were indie.

It's simple really. However ultiamately it is up to the musician, but in reality it's up to the record label, which is sad.