Ever since the 90s when Metallica (yuck) raised hell about people downloading their music, pirating has been an extremely controversial topic within the music industry. On one hand, pirating is an obvious route for people stealing music with no intentions of ever buying the actual recordings or even buying merch or going to shows to support bands whatsoever. On the other, it's a matter of convenience for those passionate about music. Why go to the store 30 minutes away and waste gas and $15 bucks to pick up a new release when you can simply go on a torrent site and have it in 2 minutes and for free? Plus, you could always just go to the store later when you're passing by and pick it up then. There's only one small problem: in most cases, downloading music for free is illegal. Of course, illegal never really stopped anyone. Have I ever downloaded music? I really can't say, but a music junkie's gotta do what a music junkie's gotta do...
Honestly, I think pirating is a non-issue as long as people find some way to support the artists whose music they are downloading. The music industry likes to make a big fuss about how all the indie and obscure bands that suffer because of pirating. Contrarily, many bands today, because of the inability to circulate records in Best Buy or Walmart, don't even rely much on record sales for support. These bands just rely on word-of-mouth and people coming to see shows and buying merch. All bands have to start small and work their way up. Once they break into the mainstream, their records actually start popping up in mainstream outlets and people will (hopefully) buy them. Throughout this process, bands hardly ever enter a stage where the members can be called "starving artists." Hell, the reason for why bands, and I use that term loosely here, like Insane Clown Posse and Brokencyde have success escapes me. It's simply inconceivable, unfathomable in my mind.
It's unlikely that copyright laws are going to change drastically any time soon, but you all can probably discern my opinion of the issue. But what do you all think of the issue?
Happy Valentine's Day <3
