Who actually pays for music downloads?

AlexAdamson1

I've always been quite curious about this?

I mean with youtubetomp3converter, and various torrent sites you can pretty much get any song or album for free these days.

Does anyone actually pay for them anymore?

luckylynda

I have always paid for my downloads,I buy them from Itunes,would much prefer to pay for them and know that I havent picked up any nasty viruses on my laptop and anyway isnt it classed as theft????

esuhl

I certainly don't pay for music downloads... but that's because I don't think it's worth paying money for a retrograde step in audio quality and a lack of artwork - I buy my music on CD.

Online, I use Spotify to discover new music. I used to use (and quite liked) Pandora too, although that's a bit of a pain as it only accepts US-based connections now.

Actually... I have paid for three music downloads: one was to show support for a friend's music, one was because it was $3 in MP3 format or £25 on CD (I'll buy the CDs if I ever see them cheaper), and the other was a title no longer being pressed to CD, but available in FLAC format (there's no way I would have paid for that album in MP3 - it needs to be played loud!)

I do think it's funny that video has gone from VHS to DVD to Blu-Ray, whilst audio has gone from CD to MP3... and ended up with the monstrosity that is Chav Pop - music that is engineered to sound relatively appealing (to chavs) when played on a mobile phone speaker...

JamesK10

Maybe there's been a huge increase in streaming music through Spotify and Youtube and the like but my Dad was a musician, that's why I buy music.

Unless there's a killer offer I try to stick to CD so I can rip them myself rather than download, but they get bought in batches whenever there's a sale. That's in contrast to when I was buying music week-in week-out and going to concerts up to twice a year before prices just got ridiculous.

esuhl

luckylynda wrote: »

...and anyway isnt it classed as theft????

Of course not - theft is when you illegally steal something with the intention of permanently depriving the original owner of that property.

Downloading music without the copyright-holders permission is not illegal (so long as you're not doing it for profit or on an industrial scale), although you can be sued for copyright infringement.

Organisations such as the Federation Against Copyright Theft exist (and are so named) to deliberately confuse and mislead consumers in the hope that this will drive down such infringement.

jamespir

i get the free ones of amazon usually otherwise i buy them from itunes

CAN1976

I buy them on itunes, if the price is reasonable.

AlexAdamson1

Is there a reason you are still buying them?

Like a moral obligation because some people regard it as 'theft'?

Or because you genuinely support the artist?

johnnyreggae

Etta James has released her retirement album - she has given me great pleasure - I have no qualms about buying it on Itunes knowing a small proportion will reach her

There is an ambiguity over downloading for free in so far as on the one hand some artists encourage it in the hope of getting more people to see them live whereas on the other if artists cannot make a living from recording and selling their music there will not be any

Folk here argue whether torrents etc are legal or not but since they are robbing the musician of revenue in most cases then to my moral compass that is theft

Torry_Quine

I would hope that the only free downloads people are getting are the legal ones.

Yolina

I don't see why I wouldn't pay for downloads, or do people expect musicians (and writers, photographers or anyone else involved with digital media) to live on thin air? I saw a thread on a Kindle forum today where someone asked if they had to pay for books :eek: Happy to download promotional freebies if it's something I want but otherwise I really don't have an issue with paying. Oh and I still buy vinyl when possible

Edit: the last vinyl I bought (Peter Murphy - Ninth) had a voucher for a free mp3 download of the album, which was a nice surprise