why i download music


There is a big uproar in the media and among the internet about how the RIAA is going after it's consumers by slapping thousands of dollars lawsuits on file swappers. I'm sure we all know the background story. The artists are losing money because CD sales are slumping, but is that really the file swappers fault?

i only have about 250 files downloaded using file sharing networks like Kazaa (and Kazaa Lite) and WinMX. a lot of them are either live songs that are unavailable to buy in stores or single songs from artists whom i usually do not like. Geggy Tah has only one song that i know of, and even though i like that song, i don't think it is worth $16.99, or the price of the entire cd. There are services available that allow you to download music at a small cost (avg price: $0.99 a song) but that still comes out to be $15-20 to fill an entire CD-R. Why do that when driving down to the nearest retail store has the same disc on sale for $9.99? I can't afford the dollar-a-song price anyway.

File sharing services need to stay. Where else am i going to find a copy of the Counting Crows singing Round Here live? It's not like they come to town whenever i want to hear them. It's not like using Kazaa has completely stopped me from purchasing CDs in a store. I have about 400 cds and the collection is growing every month. I only bought some of those cds because i was able to download a bunch of tracks from the Internet before i made my decision. I can't afford to buy things on a whim! So don't harass me for trying to get a preview of something before i buy it.

As for this whole lawsuit business, bring it on. I have $12,000 in college loans, $30,000 car and $5,000 in credit card debit. There isn't much you're going to be able to take from me. The worst thing the RIAA could do would be to alienate their clientele, and slapping $12,000 lawsuits on 18 year old kids seems to be along those lines. What is the RIAA going to do when these kids grow up? Tell their kids not to purchase cds either? I think focusing on the quality of the music that is released and the price of these products would be the best business decision that the RIAA can make at this point. The tv/movie/video world survived the rise and fall of the VCR, maybe it's time to figure out a way to work with the internet consumer (at a cheap to free cost) instead of angrying an entire generation.



email me since my comments link is malfunctioning.

this post was inspired by a recent article on cnn.com by a Princeston Student (and CNN intern) who experienced a dorm neighbors angst of being sued by the RIAA.