Those of you who don’t download their music off illegal websites/networks, speak up! Why do you buy your music? How much music do you buy/own? How can you afford it? Are you happy with the situation?
There’s got to be some of you out there.
I buy my music. I either buy it from iTunes or occasionally buy an actual CD from a brick and mortar store.
Why do I buy my music? A crap load of people worked to make it and they deserve some compensation. They give me enjoyment, I give them money.
I own a fair amount of music and I buy one or two albums per month and the odd song here and there.
How can I afford it? I work for a f*cking living, buy necessities, save a little, and blow some on stuff I want.
Am I happy with the situation? Yes and no.
I think it’s a bit pompous in the way that you ask people to justify their motives being law abiding.
Why would I buy my music? I already own it. 
Lately, I mostly listen to others music on pandora or online radio stations, so I guess the advertisers buy the music for me.
Once in a while I still buy others music via CD when I want to hear an entire album.
I’m happy with the situation. There’s plenty of legally “free to me” music available, and the few CDs I buy aren’t that expensive. I mean, I pay half as much just to see a movie once in a theater. A CD full of music can give me hours and hours of enjoyment.
What I do not download for free (legally by the way), I usually buy from half.com, get at pawn shops, or yard sales. I’ve also gotten a large portion of my collection for Christmas/birthdays.
I buy everything, or download legally. Now I use itunes as it is so easy, or i get the actual CD. The nice thing about itunes is that you can get single songs. The music I download is from myspace, which is put up by the artist, and the downloadability is in their control. I also get shadowville beats, which are free to download for non-prophet use.
I keep it legal b/c music pays the musicians for their talent, and w/o pay they couldn’t produce it, and then I couldn’t hear it. It is also blatantly wrong to get it illegally b/c why should the artists talent be given away. I know I would want to do my job for no pay.
Talking To Pirates may be relevant to the current discussion.
Unfortunately, purchasing CDs only pays recording companies for exploiting musicians’ talent. iTunes and similar are slightly better, but not much. I’ll donate directly to the artist, or pay for a performance.
Recording musicians (and other “intellectual property” vendors) have somehow managed to dupe people into believing that they should be compensated for the rest of their lives for recording a single song. Why?
It seems to me that according to your definition of “exploit”, my employer “exploits” me too by paying me for my abilities. Isn’t that what all employers do? Musicians don’t have to align themselves with recording companies.
I buy. Mostly used. Much of what I listen to isn’t the stuff that’s popular on the BitTorrent sites so even bothering to look for a download is pointless.
I’ve bought a few digital album downloads from Amazon’s MP3 store when the price of the digital download version was enough below the cost of the new/used CD to justify having a digital only copy.
One thing that worries me is that the used market is going to dry up eventually. Legal digital downloads from Amazon can’t really be resold. And BitTorrent downloads can’t be resold. The supply of used CDs is going to shrink. How much longer will we have a local used CD store to browse and buy from?
I buy. I can’t say I have never had a copied CD from a friend, or sent a track to a friend if I thought they might be interested in a new artist, but basically, I buy.
You wouldn’t steal a painting or a statue. Music is art. It is a product that costs time and money to make.
It takes an investment of years to learn to play an instrument. Instruments and equipment cost huge amounts of money. Artists often pay with their own money to record their first tracks. Even the richest musicians started off having to build their reputations, and for every one who succeeds, there are countless equally hard working and talented people who fail. Success in the music business has much to do with luck, connections and timing, and only a limited amount to do with pure musicality.
I tend to like fairly “minority interest” music and it goes hand in hand with that that I want minority interest musicians to survive. They won’t do that if I don’t pay them a fair rate for their product.
I buy CDs, as that gives me the option of listening to the music in different ways - the sound quality is better than MP3, but I can make MP3 files from them if I wish.
we’re UNICYCLISTS! we’re not like those art thieves stealing paintings from the Louvre Museum, or even from your local poster shop.
You wouldn’t steal from the government by failing to declare all your income, or inflating expenses.
you wouldn’t sneak into a concert of your favorite musician if they were sold out, you could not get tickets, you were walking by when someone opened an unwatched door, and they wrongly invited you in.
you wouldn’t take a sick day at work when you weren’t actually sick. that’s stealing! so is surfing the internet on company time, when you should be working!
is getting cheap music from mp3.ru in russia stealing? i’m new to all this, and have only been uploading my cds into my new iMac. Bt when that’s done, i’ll probably hunt for more music somewhere.
billy
I buy most of my music, i enjoy going down to the music store, browsing through some cd’s and forking out the money for bands/artists i enjoy
All of the music I listen to came from my dad’s cd collection, which is made up mostly of cd’s bought used at the local music/movie store. I’ve never downloaded an music online.
…so when I move out of my parents house, should I be legally required to delete the music from my dad’s collection and repurchase it, or what?
You’re right, I wouldn’t… the main reason being that nobody else would then be able to enjoy that painting or statue. But what if I had a machine that gave me the ability to clone that artwork on the spot and walk off with the copy, would that still be theft of that artwork? (I’m not saying I would, I’m just pointing out the problem with the “downloading music is like stealing a car” comparison)
And mp3’s, cd’s & records are copies, not the original(s), as are the paintings in that faulty analogy. 
I think it’s a bit pompous the way you think laws are so nice… 
I’ve worked releasing cd’s and illegal copying isn’t nice, that’s why I save my money and buy all the cd’s made by truly struggling artists (Faun Fables, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Blue Scholars, etc.). Otherwise I copy music from cds, download, buy used, or take them (heh). Cuz Linkin Park or Rise Against isn’t gonna be too broke if I steal their cd. They’ve got enough money to live on, they have enough dedicated fans to keep buying their music and they make new fans, who will buy their music, through illegal downloads.
i buy my music. I currently have itunes giftcards, i hate buying music online though. I love getting the physical album. Its much more satisfying.
Mp3’s, cd’s & records are copies, not the original(s), as are the paintings in that faulty analogy-not that I condone downloading “copies” either. Just making a distinction. A lot of people that agree with you also smoke pot, drink underage, and spit on the street…all illegal activities. Would they be hypocrites? Just curious. (Total “devil’s advocate” stuff. Not my view, lol)
What about the MILLIONS of youtubers who add copyrighted music to their videos? Is that “stealing”? Apparently not as the record companies allow the use of their music on most homemade videos, mine included. It turns out that those emails I received a while back from UMG were to state that the copyrighted music on my videos would be allowed:
<UMG has claimed some or all audio content in your video San Ysidro MUni (only 58 secs ;(. This claim was made as part of the YouTube Content Identification program. Your video is still live because UMG has authorized the use of this content on YouTube. As long as UMG has a claim on your video, they will receive public statistics about your video, such as number of views. Viewers may also see advertising on your video’s page.>
I doubt it. Most people work on wages, salary, or commission.
Say you’re a painter. You create surrealist paintings. You’ve displayed a few of your paintings in local showings, and they’ve gotten good reviews from local art critics. One day, you get a call from Cosmos Studios, offering you a painting contract with the following terms:
- You will assign Cosmos Studios the copyrights to your paintings.
- Your paintings will be transferred to the Cosmos Studios vault.
- Cosmos Studios will scan in each of your paintings, touch up each one in Photoshop, print out hundreds or thousands of copies using a standard laser printer, sell the copies to retail stores for $20.00 each, and pay you a royalty of $0.50 each.
- You will not market any paintings covered by this contract to or with any party other than Cosmos Studios.
- You will give Cosmos Studios first right of refusal on your next 7 paintings.
- This contract is final and non-negotiable.
Does this sound like a good deal to you?
It’s a better deal than your paintings sitting in a closet never seeing the light of day
It’s an article by Courtney Love about recording contracts, and piracy/the music industry in general. I think it’s a good read. It’s a perspective that I (it might be just me) haven’t heard too much, as opposed to the RIAA’s temper tantrum-ing and the hackers’ pissing contests.