First the mp3 trading program, Napster is rendered useless, which causes users to flock to Audiogalaxy. Then Audiogalaxy is digitally castrated, and its users migrate to KaZaa. Now KaZaa’s head is also on the digital chopping block. It’s time that the musicians got their head out of their own KaZaa, and realized that mp3 sharing is not a bad thing, but a good thing.
Let’s start the debate with the most vocal opponent of mp3 trading, Lars Ulrich of Metallica. Here is two separate quotes from Metallica, “Downloading mp3’s is immoral …” and “I’ve got something to say, I killed your baby today.” Hard to take that first quote seriously after the second. Granted, the second quote is a song lyric but it’s hard to accept someone imposing their morals on mp3 trading on you when the morals they express in song are about infanticide. Second, Mr. Ulrich should remember his roots. In the very early days of Metallica, its success was in most part due to the underground (cassette) tape trading community (See VH1’s behind the music for more details).
Napster, KaZaa and other peer 2 peer file trading, are the modern day tape traders. The community is bigger, the technology is better, and your music gets to more fans. Alas, poor Ulrich, I knew him well. I would think that if he were truly a musical “artist” it wouldn’t be about the money, but rather the message.
But “art” bows to the almighty dollar and opponents of mp3’s fail to see that mp3 trading benefits them more than it hurts them. Allow me to cite an example from my own life. A few years ago I heard a strange song about the size of Tiger Wood’s testicles and thought it was hilarious. However I had no idea who sang this song. So I did a Napster search for “Tiger Woods” and found out that Dan Bern was the singer. So I downloaded it.
A few weeks later I stumbled across the full album in the used bin at a local record store and bought it; Loved what I heard so I downloaded a few songs from other albums, liked them, bought them. So because of Napster I have now bought three albums from a guy I couldn’t hear on the radio. But it doesn’t end there, his next two albums (one of which was a double album) I bought pre-sale. I’ve also gone to see him twice in concert. So that’s at least $100 of my money I would have kept had it not been for Napster.
That’s just one of many examples lurking on my hard drive. There’s the obscure groups whose only media exposure has come from peer 2 peer programs. I’ve personally discovered Beatallica, The Ataris, Richard “Dick” Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine, to name a few via mp3’s. I buy their albums, and would see them in concert if they came to a venue close enough.
Dido benefited greatly from mp3 trading before the release of her first album. True “artists” focus on the message of their music, not the money of the music.
Perhaps mp3’s do hurt CD sales, but so do CD prices. $18.99 for one CD? The average burger flipper, for arguments sake, earns $6 an hour. It takes over three hours of work to pay for a CD at that price.
God forbid we listen to music without paying for it. It’d be just listening to the radio. Or what if we kept the song without paying for it? It’d be like in seventh grade when we’d tape record the radio because our allowance was too small … those were the days. I still have a copy of the song I recorded off the radio the last time the Bengals went to the Super Bowl, “The Ickey Shuffle.” The difference between Peer 2 Peer and recording off the radio is that peer 2 peer is easier. And easier means happier fans. Happier fans mean more kudos for the musician, even if the album sales aren’t high enough that a musician has to settle for a three hooker orgy, as opposed to the five hooker orgies you were accustomed to in pre-mp3 days.
So I’m going to keep downloading mp3’s and buying CD’s, and Lars, if you don’t like it, then sue me. Oh wait you already sued your fans, how could I forget? I’m sure that helped record sales. Allow me to amend my previous statement, I’m going to keep downloading mp3s and buying CD’s, except for Metallica whom I will only listen to in mp3 format. And if that bothers you, dub me unforgiven.
