Who actually pays for music downloads?

Kel_1981

rainbow_carnage wrote: »

The music industry has yet to decide what exactly it is that it's selling.

When you're buying a CD, are you buying a physical item or the right to listen to the music? If it's the former, then sharing mp3s isn't theft - files aren't physical. If it's the latter, then why should I pay to have to upgrade formats? If I already own the song on vinyl (or, to date myself, on a cassette tape), I should get the CD version or the mp3 for free. I've already paid for the right to listen to that music.

I buy a lot of music second hand. The artist gets nothing from that. It's perfectly legal and hardly frowned-upon. I don't see record companies campaigning for the government to shut down Music and Video Exchange or second-hand sales on Amazon. This leads me to believe that record companies see CDs and records as physical products that can be bought and sold. In that case, they shouldn't get to complain about torrent sites.

Great post! That's exactly how I look at it.

dawn1980

I pay for my music.
I grab freebies from amazon and itunes.

I listen to tracks on youtube to see if I like enough to buy or listen on my husband's spotify account.

Most of my mp3 albums are amazon's deal of the week ones. I buy multi buy cd bargains in supermarkets sometimes.

I also buy second hand.

For Vinyl I bought a usb record player so I can rip my records to mp3. It wasn't very expensive, can be time consuming and isn't digitally re-mastered but I quite like the sound.

JooFox

esuhl wrote: »

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.

This is complete tosh. An independent artist could spend around £2000 on getting a single recorded and published. This could be a small business loan. So if you don't pay the 69p or whatever it is then they are deprived of 50p to pay back that loan. This is why the only people putting music out are the ones with record company backing (ie highly produced pop). YOU are responsible for killing off independent music.
YOU don't get to interpret the law to suit your needs. YOU are a thief. Get yourself a badge and walk down the street with your pants down :rotfl:

SBarratt

I buy all CD's along with books. There is nothing quite like seeing your collection upon a wall rather than inside a virtual shelf.

allinthefam

I don't, would rather own the physical cd.

Derivative

Theft and copyright infringement are very different beasts altogether.

If you steal someone's car, you deprive them of the object itself, as well as their means of getting to work, the enjoyment of using the object. The money they could have, had they sold it instead of you stealing it. The 'profits' realised from using a car.

Whereas if you download a song, there is no deprivation of the object. Only the profits, which in most cases are not 'lost' anyway - there are people out there with millions of MP3's, gigabytes upon terabytes - not a hope in a million years that they'd buy it all.

I don't think that copyright infringement is wrong because I think copyright law is a solution in search of a problem. Artists can make money from live performances such as concerts, radio appearances, commercials, unique merchandise - stuff that requires labour. In what other industry do you create once and reap the benefits forever?

-TangleFoot-

I've been getting most of my music from 7digital and Amazon UK, with the odd purchase from Bandcamp and other less well-known sources... like the artists' own web pages. I'll get the CD if that is substantially cheaper than the equivalent download but most of it is plain ol' 320kbps MP3.

Data may be ephemeral, but physical media can be damaged all too easily. I hate getting discs with scratches made by other people on them.

Tina20

I download and pay, mostly cause I don't know how to do it another way.

People go on about the legality of it, but would happily Video the TV back in the days of VHS. That's technically illegal but no-one really cares.

I don't give a monkeys if jessie J gets her millions to spend on yet more ridiculous outfits, terrible wigs and shiny cars.
So if people don't want to pay I'm not losing sleep. If I could find an easy way to get them free I would. I've poured thousands into the music industry over the years.

-TangleFoot-

Tina20 wrote: »

If I could find an easy way to get them free I would.

The act of creation requires energy, time and money. If one doesn't place any great value on the product and the creator is unwilling or unable to give it away, one shouldn't get it.

That said, I often preview prospective purchases on streaming services before opening my wallet; a 30 second snippet isn't always enough.

Conrad

Personaly I pay for every mp3 I DL, as I have this silly ole notion everyone deserves to make a living.

I have particular trouble with supposedly left wing people going out thier way to ensure others earn less, yet these very same types of folk can be seen on Qustion Time applauding the pronouncments of Union Leaders and Billy Braggs saying things such as 'we want a fair Britian for all'. The hipochrasy is staggering. Give me a Banker over these frauds any day.