The question is what do I think of buying and selling of music? I would like to talk about the most controversial aspect of this question, downloading the music for free. I have in the past downloaded music for free on the internet. I see the appeal as a consumer of getting any music, from any artist, of any genre anytime you want. This can be a great positive for the artist who is making the music. It provides them with instant notoriety and a huge following. This increase in popularity can lead to those people buying merchandise by the artist and/or attending their concerts. Another major issue arises from this topic, is music just a means to making money or is the making of music a way to relate to the people, or a way of enriching people's lives? If the answer is the latter of these two choices then free downloading is accomplishing the goal of a rapid spread of the artists' music. What can be better than that? With increasing abilities to obtain music freely, the less money for the artist.
The other side of this topic is the money compensation for the artist and the record companies. The artist takes time and effort to make these songs and albums and there is an opinion that they should be compensated for. Being a musician after all is a profession, and they deserve to be paid. Does a plumber do work pro bono? Probably not. Also the same can be said for the label companies, they discover the talent and give the artists the tools they need to perform their talents. Instead of being in a garage or in the streets they are in studios harvesting their goods (the music) and distributing it to everyone for enjoyment. All this work is not cheap and certainly needs some sort of compensation. There is an argument for both sides.
The solution? Well, I believe technologies such as Itunes is a great balance. To have the music for the consumer at consumer prices. In my opinion to make music requires a great deal of money and to obtain it for free seems incorrect. The consumer can also appreciate the music they buy instead of just another song that can get lost in the shuffle.
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We have all been taught, or told, that downloading music for free is a very bad thing. I think we have the same view that if a person does find and download a song for free, that can make that person begin to follow the artist more closely (going to concerts, buying merchandise). I think this could be very beneficial to the artist. I think the question is are the artist really gaining a profit from the work that they are releasing, or is the label profitting more than the artist?
ReplyDeleteI agree with the idea that downloading free music will help a band become well known because people aren't going to buy a cd all the time say if they barely know the band. But if they can get it for free then yeah they are going to get it and they might like the band and go to their concert or even buy their next album to support. iTunes is a great tool because people can buy the songs they want for just a dollar and not the whole album. However, this is going to change the way record companies and artists do music becasue they are going to focus more on making one-hit wonders instead of an album that flows. I like your two-sided theory good job man.
ReplyDeleteYeah Itunes is definitely doing some great things for the industry, although it is changing it in a way that I'm personally not a fan of. I prefer albums to singles, and services like Itunes are causign a shift to singles which I don't like, but at the same time at least the artists are being compensated. I know that I would want to be paid if someone was downloading my music - especially if it's how I'm makign my living
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