There is another side of this coin as well, back in the old days before Napster, we would trade tapes that were recorded from a original recording and that is how metal got it's start in America, especially Thrash. Hell, Metallica owes their entire career to tape trading because Johnny Z got a copy of their demo from a friend that found it at a flea market. (There is absolutely no irony there) We would get a demo from a band that handed it out for free then it would be copied hundreds of times and passed out to an entire network of fans connecting through ads in fanzines (the internet before there was an internet.) at parties, between friends, and at shows, etc. We have always had technology that allows us to share music, from tapes, to CDs to file sharing, it's really all the same thing. Is it right or wrong? That is up for debate and your own moral compass. I am just pointing out it's nothing new and the technology to copy music has always been available. Is giving your girlfriend a mix CD pirating? It's technically illegal but everybody does it. Also if you do explore the torrent sites you can find stuff that is out of print and rare stuff like imports, b sides, etc. Stuff that is not available on any of the pay outlets. The only place you can get Pantera's back catalog pre Phil is on the torrent sites because they don't want to admit to even being a band before 1991. So if you want to support your bands, go to shows and by their merch, and most likely they will have their CD available for sale and I would imagine the sale of that CD will bring more money to the band than buying it at the big box store or net outlets. So bottom line is as long as there is a free internet. blank CD's and a way to copy music there will be piracy and most of us will partake. We know how to support our favorite bands and should do so, but if I can get another rare Kyuss B side that is not available anywhere else then I'm gonna do it.
I write about ripping my 4,884 CDs to MP3 or converting my 1000 cassettes to MP3 on this blog. I have an enormous music collection. Why? The three most common ways I have ever come across new music are:
- Received music for the purpose of writing a music review. I did music reviews for well over a decade. Since I don't actively seek out music to review, this method has rapidly declined.
- Borrowing a CD and ripping it / trading music. This has been done since back in 4th grade with JR when we would put our cassette players speaker to speaker to get "the latest" songs. Since then, I've traded cassettes as well as CDs. The latest example is when I ripped Margaret's CDs last month.
- Purchasing / receiving music as a gift. The sub-categories I immediately think of are garage sales, buying music at Slacker's in St. Louis, and buying music during NCYC in Indianapolis in November 2013.
No comments:
Post a Comment