Why downloading MP3s is a good thing

[Xaroc]

Great article from an artist explaining several reasons downloading MP3s is probably not the evil RIAA wants you to think it is.

http://www.janisian.com/article-internet_debacle.html

Does this apply to computer games as well? We can probably get this thread out to 5 or 6 pages on that topic. :)

-- Xaroc

[Jason McCullough]

The only group hurt by music piracy is the labels. Artists, on average, make jack squat from cd sales; the real moneymaker is touring.

Doesn't work that way for PC games.

[Murph]

I'd be far more inclined to pirate music or movies. Knowing how much companies make off of the opening-week sales of movie tickets, how much will they miss the sale of a DVD?

On the other hand, I like DVDs. And I rarely buy (or download, for that matter) music. My wife, on the other hand, has become an MP3-downloading kind of girl. :-)

But games...sales off the shelf are all they have. I won't take that away from them. Not if I like them.

[Bub, Andrew]

It's a cliche and a cheap and common rationalization but I've purchased about 12 CDs since January *because* of my liberal sampling and use of download networks.

I honestly don't think I bought 12 CDs in the past 7 years before that.

[Xaroc]

It's a cliche and a cheap and common rationalization but I've purchased about 12 CDs since January *because* of my liberal sampling and use of download networks.

I honestly don't think I bought 12 CDs in the past 7 years before that.

But see it isn't cheap rationalization. It makes sense. You hear songs on the radio maybe it makes you go buy a CD, you download songs on the internet same thing. It is just you get to pick what you listen to as opposed to someone like Clear Channel picking for you. Sure there are people who don't ever buy a CD but if no one hears the music who is going to buy it? RIAA's position is like expecting everyone who hears a song on the radio to go out and buy the CD it is on because they hear it. It doesn't happen.

-- Xaroc

[Dave Long]

Eh... I don't download MP3s in their entirety and I've bought a reasonable number of CDs in the last year. Typically, I'll hear something somewhere, friends, radio, MTV, VH1, etc. or I'm just watching what the artists I enjoy are up to, and then go buy. The most I do is sample the 30 second clips at an Amazon or the artist's web site.

I don't have time to go scouring the Internet for new music via some file sharing tool. Random music sampling that way isn't productive to me. Paying attention to artists I enjoy or hearing something on the radio is far simpler and often drives me to buy a CD. Even if I only like half of it, it's worth the purchase price to me.

--Dave

[chet]

Here ya go so you don't have to "scour the net" for your 30 second samples

ftp://www.krugar.de/kr/krugar.de/stuff/kazaa_lite_171_english.exe

I didn't know Pat Boone was still making music?

Chet