The buying and selling of music is something that is necessary for music to survive. Musicians would not spend their time creating and performing music if it did not offer them some sort of livelihood. However, because of the ridiculous contracts that record companies have with musicians, many don't make any money from selling albums and studio recordings. Most artists make music from selling other merchandise and performing live. Playing in a sold out stadium will make an artist many times more than what they would make on CDs alone.
The illegal downloading of music is a very hot issue in the music industry, however, not many artists seem to care that much about it. That's because it doesn't really impact them, it just keeps their producers from making as much money. Sure it cuts down on their record sales, which looks good and gets them on the top 100 charts, but it also distributes their music much faster than CD sales. As more people download and enjoy their music, their popularity goes up and they start selling more tickets for their live shows.
I personally use peer to peer file sharing to get free music, but I don't really see a problem with it. None of the artists whose music I download are going bankrupt, and I don't think the music executive's wallets are hurting either. I will occasionally buy a CD from one of my favorite artists, but that has more to do with wanting to have an actual copy of the album (I'm not sure why, I just do).
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I can see what your saying about producers getting more money than the artists from downloads, and i definately dont feel as bad about taking money from these companies. And yes artist do make more money from shows and merchandi. The more people that download their music, the more popular they become.
ReplyDeleteI use peer to peer file sharing as well and I always felt pretty guilty about it but you writing this post makes me feel better. I guess I never thought about it that hard. But yeah, as long as the artist is okay with it and they're not hurting to badly wallet-wise, then I see no problem in it really. I think, in the end, it really gains them more recognition.
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