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Fileshare and illegally download now!
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Hunter T Wolfe
Hunter T Wolfe
1701 posts

Re: Fileshare and illegally download now!
Nov 22, 2009, 14:45
dodge one wrote:
I've pretty much given up on posting in the 'Sound-tracks of our lives' threads because, generally speaking, they read more as vanity lists to me than actual music that was purchased.
There has been many times that i read those lists by various posters and thought to myself, Isn't that the same person who was only just recently explaining his or her near poverty existance? Yet is scrolling off every week, music that if actually purchased, would amount to Hundreds of dollars? If not Thousands? And i'm talking about recent releases too.
It just doesn't add up.



Speaking for myself, I'm a largely unpaid music journalist and PR companies send me free CDs of forthcoming releases, unsolicited, every week. That accounts for almost all of the new stuff I mention in my Soundtrack of our lives.

I know I'm in a priviledged position and grateful for it. The music I like, I try to review or write a feature about somewhere, which is the deal. I think even writing a one-liner on HH about how much I like a CD I've been sent helps to express thanks, too- someone might investigate the release on my recomendation and even pay for it.

Dodge, broadly I'm with you and Ian on this one. Though I do think that some sort of distinction should be made between downloading live, unavailable, radio session stuff free & illegally, and downloading the latest new release studio album without paying for it. In old school terms, it's the difference between bootleg LPs of live concerts, and pirate copies of new releases.

I may once or twice have downloaded some 'bootleg' unavailable material that is not available for me to buy or pay for. I've never pirated an otherwise available album.

I can't afford many new releases but tend to buy old vinyl from 2nd hand record stores and charity shops. Also it maybe says something about our culture of priveledge and waste that many new release CDs can be bought in charity shops for a fraction of their price within a year of release, people get bored with them so quickly.

It's a complicated issue and the whole nature of the music industry is changing, the value of recorded music as such is being downgraded. I don't agree with stealing and I agree with musicians (and hey, even those evil capitalists who work in the offices getting the stuff out!) being paid for what they do. I also think that Pirate Bay as a news source on this story may ust be a tad biased and sensational. But- filsharing etc, right or wrong, is a reality the business is going to have to adapt to. You can't close the box.
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