The piracy of music on the internet

United States
October 24, 2009 9:36pm CST
I manage bands. I had a new release this week. The day it was released it was stolen and put up on the internet as a free download through a pirate site. What is a musician to do? It costs a lot of money to create music, to record, to get art work done, and in pressing it to sell, just to have someone steal it and give it away. Some people seem to think they should get music for free and have no problem stealing it off these pirate sites, or that because they by one copy it gives them the right to copy it and give it away to others. What do you think? Will the musicians give up? Will music disappear? Any ideas? Solutions to the problem? It's breaking my heart.
3 responses
@edxcast (1168)
• Ecuador
25 Oct 09
Dont think that music will disappear, though being honest i have used p2p programs to download music. But there are reasons for that. First its almost impossible to get the cd´s i want on my local stores. You will say to buy it through the internet. Well thats easier to say than do it if you dont have a credit card. And besides just a record could ascend to a price of $30-45 bucks(or even more), and thats not a fair price. And it has its good side also. Your band get to be known and people most surely would go to their concerts. For example i remember reading along time ago how a band(sonata arctica) was surprised when they visit chile, because their sales were not so good on that country, but their gig was well supported over there(with the people knowing their lyrics and being just crazy about them). And they even say it was one of their best gigs they have ever given.
• United States
25 Oct 09
hmmm that makes me sad. Not all music will disappear, just the stuff that is not mainstream, we will get the music that the big corporations want to shove down our throats. You can always order a CD from the store nearest you, just need to ask. It only costs .99 cents to download a song legally and you can buy cards with a code to download music without a cc, or pay a small monthly fee for all the music you want. If a band does not sell CD's it makes it hard to get any support to go on the road and tour so people can see them. The reason I brought up the subject is to bring awareness and hope that people will at least think about it next time they steal music. No matter what one does for a living, they wouldn't want to work that hard just to have people steal their work. You are not alone. An unstoppable 50% or more of people that get music are getting it for free. Maybe we need to go back to vinyl hah
@edxcast (1168)
• Ecuador
25 Oct 09
Friend i live in Ecuador, those ideas dont work on here. How am i supposed to pay for something online without credit card for example. Stores sells only mainstream stuff and dont think they bring you the stuff you want if it is not mainstream(the ones who sell original, other stores just sell copies and are abundant on Ecuador). I support you in some ways, i honestly would like to buy cd´s, but if they want you to sell you a cd for 40-50 bucks, honestly would you buy it? even if the music is really good? even if it is 1/4th of the minimum salary on Ecuador? Im not trying to justify myself, just trying to explain reasons why this happen. I have buyed some cd´s though, but they werent easy to find.
• Mexico
26 Oct 09
Hi tambrerocks: I understand your statement and i else fear for the future of the music industry but there's nothing to do with it, you can download pirate music everywhere. There's no solution. I can just tell you that some people as me buy legal copies of their favorite artist if they like what they're hearing. Unfortunetly we're not the majority of the public.
@Brad2289 (184)
• United States
25 Oct 09
I'll be honest with you, i download free songs from Limewire all the time. A lot of people do. For all the bands and music that i like it would just cost to much money to buy all the songs that i like. Also, i understand where you are coming from. It's a hard cycle but i'm also not sure of the future of the music industry.