Musicians and Piracy

Okay stop whining. You are a millionaire musician making ungodly amounts of money compared to my broke 18 year old self. So when you tell me I am wrong for downloading your song of the internet for nothing, then sue the pants off me leaving me with nothing left to my name, all over a 99 cent download. Think again.

South Park, a TV show on Comedy Central hit the nail on the head with this one. The boys get themselves into trouble when they download music off of a free file sharing web site. The cops show up to their doors and take them in. The boys respond saying its not a big deal. One of the cops loses it and takes them on a tour of the “suffering” musicians, who can't make ends meet because of internet piracy. The boys end up at Britney Spears’ house where due to piracy she now has to save up to buy all the lavish things she wants. The boys quickly learn their lesson. The makers of South Park tend to have a message behind all of their episodes.

Can you guess the message?

That is right, piracy is not a big deal, and when rich artists complain about not making enough money we need to stop sympathizing with them.

Jack White has had an extremely successful music career. He has been in three bands, (The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, and The Dead Weather) and had a huge solo career. He is considered an incredible musician and has a sound that is uniquely his. He was quoted saying “I don't mind [piracy] that much, really,” later on he explained how he felt that he only wants to have music in its physical form of records and CD’s and how he felt that when buying music of the internet he doesn't feel like he is buying anything saying “you think that its there, but you can't see any moving parts and that's disappointing.”

Neil Young’s approach to piracy is simple “Piracy is the new radio, that's how music gets around. That's the real world for these kids.” He says how piracy is the new radio and how that's how us kids listen to music, and lets face it most of us kids are broke. So when artists expect us kids to shell out 15 bucks for their newest album we might think twice. But think back to the 60’s when certain music was banned from being played on the radio so what did people do? They set up boats and broadcast songs over the radio that people wanted to hear.

So you might be wondering why do they care so much. Because the HUGE record labels behind them care. They don't want some 30 year old hacker in Sweden uploading all their artists hits because they loose sales. And who pirates the most... Teenagers and College Students. Because we either make little to nothing at our part time jobs or we don't work and our parents give us spending money every couple weeks. Us teenagers also love to rebel and pirating music is one of those easy ways to rebel. Record labels could probably solve all their pirating woes if the latest CD was not $15. Because when you market music to Teens and College Students you need to understand we don't have the same disposable income that our Adult counterparts do.

In Flames Biography

                In Flames is a Swedish band that started as Jesper Strӧmblad's side project from a death metal band by the name of Ceremonial Oath. He began this side project in 1990. Jesper is from Gothenburg, Sweden, and this is where he began the project that would become In Flames. In 1993, Jesper decided to break off from Ceremonial Oath altogether, making In Flames his primary focus. The very first singer for In Flames was Jesper Stromblad. At the time, he was the singer for another melodic death metal band, Dark Tranquility. He provided vocals for In Flames, on their first album, "Lunar Strain" and their EP "Subterranean."  In 1996, when their second studio album, "The Jester Race," was made, Anders Friden replaced him as the singer. The album "The Jester Race" was also the origin of their symbol, the Jesterhead, which has become a widely recognized symbol among fans of the metal genre, as something representing the band In Flames. 

Do the poor not deserve the same music as you?

I believe that "inherent value" is an oxymoron, because, if something has value to you, that means that you value it. Nothing just has objective, natural, and irrefutable value by itself, people find value in it, and what one person values, another person may not. Thusly, in my opinion, all value is subjective. That fact does not, however, make things people find valuable any less valuable to those people. Just because value is personal does not mean it doesn't exist.

Music is like an extremely advanced form of communication. It's as if the artist takes a fragment of how they were feeling in a particular moment, or how they imagine someone else, or even a hypothetical person, was feeling, and puts it into the mind of another person: the listener, allowing them to perceive and experience a moment as the original person who felt that set of emotions did. In this sense, music is a means of communication that accomplishes a form of interpersonal empathy no other means has yet been able to, other than visual art. The fact that we still have it today, after all the ages, makes sense, because one of the largest reasons we evolved to where we are today as humans was by being a social species, i.e, communicating.

The ability to recognize and understand such a message in music has many of the same limits as other means of communication. One good example is the ability to comprehend a language; if you were trying to tell something, no matter how much meaning it had to you, to someone else, but you were saying it in Mandarin Chinese, and this person didn't speak Mandarin Chinese, it would seem like meaningless nothingness to them. The message would only be received by those with the wherewithal to do so, i.e. "speaking the language" of that music.

Whether or not all music should be paid for by its listeners is an entirely different question. When it comes to this matter, I support the decision, largely, being up to each individual artist. It is definitely hard to protect each individual song or track down each illegal download or streaming of music, which could make the following method complicated to execute, but I think that, if a specific artist is ok with his or her music being shared freely, then this decision should be respected, and if an artist wants the purchase of their music to be protected, then it should be protected, as such. There are many examples of artists from the sixties that had a very relaxed approach to the sharing of their music, and, in many cases, encouraged it, because what mattered to them was getting the meaning, message, and feeling of their music spread around, for all the world to hear, the way that works of art of the ancient masters are appreciated by everyone today, and not how much they profited from it.

It is, of course, true that this is not exactly the trend today, and although this may largely be attributed to the advent of the internet and subsequent ease of piracy, I still think it's fair to question what the grander implications of this are. Do modern musicians largely care more about how much money they're making for their next song than whether or not it reaches someone, means something to them, or helps them? This was absolutely not the case for the aforementioned artists from the sixties. Is this due to the advent of the internet, or is there a bigger issue going on here? There are actually a few examples of artists with more relaxed views about how their music is spread today. Although their motivations for this attitude vary from being a band still in the early stages of its development in desperate need of publicity to more philosophical thoughts, these bands do exist. One such band is System of a Down, or at the very least, they were one such band back in their third album. This is the cover of that album:

Music Piracy: What's Up With That?!

Music piracy is, whether you want to believe it or not, a sensation that's sweeping the nation. A vast amount of artists see piracy as a theft of their intellectual property, and therefore an irredeemable deed. Some however, embrace this new method of music distribution and how it may help spread their sound. Hayley Reardon, a junior at Marblehead High School and professional musician, has her own opinions on music piracy. I had a brief interview with Hayley on her opinions, of which she had many:
Me: What genre of music would you say you produce, and why?
Hayley: I’d classify my music as singer/songwriter - mainly because it gives me the most freedom. I feel like I can create anything I want to under that title.
Me: In your musical career, what is your largest source of income (ex. CD sales, merchandise)?
Hayley: Live gigs for sure. Partly due to ticket sales but also because it’s really the only setting I’ve found where people are still willing to purchase physical CDs.
Me: What methods do you use to promote your music?
Hayley: I use your typical social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr) to keep people updated on live shows and new music. I also collect email addresses and send out an email newsletter with all kinds of info.
Me: Do you use any services provided through the internet to distribute music?
Hayley: Yes! Definitely. More recently Soundcloud and Spotify have been some of the most important tools for me. People used to say “so can I find your music on iTunes?” and now all I ever hear people ask about is whether or not I’m on Spotify. But I also continue to use iTunes, Amazon, and Nimbit Music.
Me: Where do you stand on the balance between the importance of spreading your music, and making money off of it?
Hayley: I think giving away music can be a really good marketing tool to get your music heard by more people and I’ve done it myself many times. I also believe, however, that art is worth something. So in my mind it’s about creating a balance between giving up sales when you know it’s going to gain you some new fans, and charging for your art when you know there are people out there who love it enough to pay for it.
Me: How do you feel about fans of your music obtaining it without paying for it, such as pirating songs and burning CDs?
Hayley: Its always a bummer to have people getting your music for free when they could be paying for it, but I don’t take it personally. I’m thrilled to have people listening to my music regardless of how they get their hands on it. As I said, I have pretty much come to accept how integrated into our world music piracy has become. I’m always on the look out for new, creative ways to subsidize my music and make up for the free downloading that goes on. There are musicians out there handling the issue in a really creative, positive way and successfully facing the challenges of making a living off of music in a changing digital world. That’s my goal - to focus less on how to stop people from illegally downloading my music and more on new, creative ways to fund what I love to do.

Along with Hayley, many professional musicians have strong opinions on piracy. Pop star Lady Gaga doesn't mind fans pirating her music, saying "...[Y]ou know how much you can earn off touring, right? Big artists can make anywhere from $50 millon for one cycle of two years' touring. Giant artists make upwards of $100 million. Make music--then tour. It's just the way it is today," and dismissing the concerns of artist who claim to suffer due to piracy. Paul McCartney, however, had differing opinions on the matter. McCartney says "If you get on a bus you've got to pay," saying that fans have to pay for their "ticket" to get on the metaphorical bus of music. McCartney and fellow Beatle Ringo Starr also allowed for their music to be used in the Music Matters anti-piracy campaign

Piracy: Plague or the Wave of the Future

Though we as the consumer may have opinions that vary greatly, at the end of the day, it is the artist whose music it is, and so we must listen to their demands and take into account their opinions.  They are the creators of the music, the owners of the intellectual property, and so to truly create a fair system where both parties can reach an agreement, we must listen to their voice.  Many artists are vocal and passionate about the topic of musics role in today's world  on both sides of the issue.  Many artists support greater availability of music to the general populace where as others favor strict guidelines in response to piracy.  The two opposing camps are often diametrically opposed; even within musical groups band members may disagree on the topic of music piracy.


(From the Addy & Julia website with permission of the owners)

I interviewed Addy Sleeman, a local student musician and one half of the group Addy & Julia along with classmate Julia Taliesin.  The group is a singer/songwriter duo hailing from Marblehead who perform both covers and their own original work.  When I asked Addy about her opinions on music piracy and the increased availability of music on the internet, her beliefs were short and sweet: "I don't have much of an issue with it, as I think it is a way for people to share music.  As a lesser-known artist, it's important for someone like me to have exposure rather than money!"  Addy's opinions are a perfect characterization of the camp of musicians that supports music proliferation and piracy.  She supports increased awareness of her work over strict pricing, and is a firm supporter of the idea that it is more important for music to get exposure—to have fans listening to it—than for every single copy of a record to be paid for.  "Musicians should focus on the music they are producing and not the profit.  If we worry about income and make music solely for that purpose, the whole joy of the creation disappears" she quips, sounding mature beyond her young years grasping macro level concepts about the role of music in today's world, even weighing the balance between economics and passion.  Yet she still manages to be a normal youth and is in touch with the way music is consumed in a modern digital world.

Many musicians share Addy's belief, prioritizing the joy music brings over economic endeavors.   There are three core tenements supporting a belief in greater music availability.  The first is that all people deserve the right to music in their lives: "It's the democratization of music in a way.  And music is a gift.  That's what it should be, a gift" (Huffington Post).  The previous quote is from Latin pop
sensation Shakira, and is a perfect summation of the idea of the inalienable right to music—this idea that by providing music on the web, then people who may not have the money to access the music otherwise can still listen.  Norah Jones eloquently states this belief, saying: "I think it's great that young people who don't have a lot of money can listen to music and be exposed to new things." (Huffington Post).  The second argument is that through greater availability (in part caused by piracy), artists get greater exposure.  The argument goes that this is especially beneficial to up-and-coming artists where exposure is key.  Additionally, this exposure can lead to these fans supporting their favorite musicians in other ways: "[Pirates] might not buy an album, but they're spending their money buying concert tickets, a T-shirt, whatever" says Ed O'Brien. (Huffington Post). This is especially important in a world where record sales are no longer the major source of income for most musicians: "Make music—then tour.  It's just the way it is today." counsels Lady Gaga (Huffington Post).  The paradigm has shifted; the record industry is no longer the same, and artists like these are recognizing this.  The third core argument is that technology is constantly evolving and we cannot stop progress; the music industry is changing, and so instead of fighting the tide of progress artists must: "I have concluded that we can only look to what Internet and mobile users are doing or want to do, and then note how their actions drive technologists to provide platforms for them." says Dave Allen, a blogger and musician.


(Flickr Creative Commons)

Though there is great support for greater freedom and access to music, some artists still feel that piracy is stealing.  Lily Allen has started a campaign against music piracy and has urged a coalition of artists and government officials to come together to fight piracy.  She has been quoted describing piracy as a "disaster" and that it "it is making it harder and harder for new acts to emerge."

As is by now clear, this is a polarizing topic and there is no one "right" answer.  Each artist has their own interpretation, and as we move into the future opinions and arguments are sure to change.  Hopefully, through discourse and compromise, artists and law makers can reach new agreements to suit everyone, providing the joy of music to all those who will listen.

Artist's Opinions On Piracy

During the week, I got time to sit down with Marblehead High School's very own Sophia Capalbo, also
known as, Fia James. Fia and I have been friends for years but she has recently blown up in the music spotlight. Her passionate singing and song writing skills have really stood out around the school. Sophia has lived in Marblehead her whole life. She plays the guitar and sings. Interestingly enough, she can not sell her own music yet because she is waiting on copyright privileges. Another way she promotes her music is through recordings. If someone asks for a recording she will send it via the internet or she will burn a CD for them. Fia also claims she does not care if people were to download her music illegally. She said "it's really easy to download illegal music so I don't have a problem with it." However, Sophia ultimately believes in buying artists music. She states that it is acceptable when a band is new and trying to boost their popularity to download illegally at first, but to switch to purchasing the music soon after. Sophia has been performing at small local venues recently and is hoping to extend to larger venues as soon as possible. Fia James is currently in the process of creating her own website but for now can be reached through her Facebook page Fia James Music or through YouTube.

Stevie Wonder is a famous musician. He has been blind since birth but still manages to feel the music through his body and rock the stage. When asked about copyright laws Mr. Wonder said this "Record companies, publishers, radio stations, retailers, artists and others in our industry must take a very strong position against the stealing of our writing and music or else those writings and music will become as cheap as the garbage in the streets." What Stevie is saying is that once people start "stealing" music, it loses the value that it once had. When an artist creates music it is made with extreme value. Many times the song is a story of the artists life, struggles, or accomplishments and for someone to download that for free is disrespectful to the artist. I also completely deteriorates the music itself making the music "cheap as the garbage on the streets."



Another artist against music piracy is Brad Paisley. A country singer who who has had 10 songs hit number 1 on the charts. When asked about music piracy Paisley said "My producer, my co-writers, my musicians have a big part in my albums. When you download music illegally, those folks don't get paid." People do not think of the men and women working behind the scenes. Paisley brings this to light in his quote. Many think that these big name musicians do not need anymore money, however, it is not just the artist getting paid. Everyone the artist is associated with is impacted by music piracy. From the manager to the person in charge of special effects. More than just one person is affected by piracy so stop music piracy. It is unfair to the artist and everyone associated with the artist.

Artists on Piracy and the Value of Music

In my previous blog post I talked about piracy and my opinion on it. This time I'm looking at other artists opinions on the matter of piracy and music's intrinsic value. What I found is that like a lot of things, lots of people have no problem with piracy and or encourage it, and there are a lot of people who completely disagree with it. Not surprisingly, it seems like majority of music piracy's supporters are younger artists who are just starting out; although bigger artists like Lady Gaga and Jack White also agree with piracy.

Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters had a somewhat vulgar but good comment supporting piracy that does a good job summing up what is probably a lot of artist's view on the topic: "I think it’s a good idea because it’s people trading music. It has nothing to do with industry or finance, it’s just people that want music and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s the same as someone turning on the f***ing radio, it’s the same as someone putting a cassette in a cassette deck when the BBC plays a special radio session. I don’t think it’s a crime, it’s been going on for years. It’s the same as people making tapes for each other. The industry is more threatened by it because it’s the worldwide web and it’s a broader scope of trading, but I don’t think it’s such a f***inghorrible thing. The first thing we should do is get all the f***ing millionaires to shut their mouths, stop b****ing about the 25 cents a time they’re losing."

A very different quote from Prince, who completely disagrees with piracy states: "The industry changed. We made money (online) before piracy was real crazy. Nobody’s making money now except phone companies, Apple and Google. I’m supposed to go to the White House to talk about copyright protection. It’s like the gold rush out there. Or a carjacking. There’s no boundaries. I’ve been in meetings and they’ll tell you, ‘Prince, you don’t understand, it’s dog-eat-dog out there’. So I’ll just hold off on recording."

Both of these quotes from artists today are reasonable, Dave points out that it has been happening forever just in different ways than it used to. While Prince believes that no one is making money off of the internet other than the large companies that drive it. In a way he is correct in saying this because these companies do make lots of money, but that doesn't mean he won't make any money if he puts his songs up for download on the internet.

Last I would like to mention electro funk artist Kill Paris's opinion on piracy, while I did not get to fully interview him he did tell me his opinion on how music should be distributed: "I think the biggest thing is to just make good music, give your music away for free for, as long as you can. Or as long as it takes and even after that, keep giving stuff away for free... If the music is good and it's a free download. People are gonna download and listen to it and share it with their friends. I think there is definetely still ways to make money off of music nowadays, but that shouldn't be the way you try to do it right outta the gate. Even the first couple years, shoot I've been making music for 10 years and only started selling it like a couple years ago."

Kill Paris's current soundcloud
profile picture

Kill Paris basically believes that it's better to just share music than try and sell it right away. He has a growing fan base of around 75,000 people as of right now and you can listen to his music on soundcloud, where he gives most away for free and sells his music on iTunes and Beatport. 

From what I have heard from several artists on the web, it seems majority cope with piracy in some way, whether it be give most of your music away for free or simply just not make any more music. It seems like more and more artists support piracy and free downloads the longer it occurs even with many of them against piracy.

An interview with the Black Tigers

  Over the week I had the chance to talk back and forth with the artists from the rising trio    Black Tiger Sex Machine. The members like to hide their identities under their distinctive trademark helmets keeping most knowledge about themselves on the down low. Talking with these artists over the week really showed that they care about their fans, and try their hardest to help them whenever they can, they were delighted to be interviewed and here's what they had to say.

Do you earn your living entirely through music, or do you have other sources of income?

One of the members of our trio has a full-time job. The other two work exclusively on music and label management.

As a musician, what are your most lucrative sources of income? (CD/mp3 sales, ticket sales for shows, lessons, etc)

Revenue from shows accounts for the vast majority of our income, probably over 85%. The rest is a mix of mp3 sales, merchandise sales (t-shirts) and licensing.

Do you use the internet to promote your music? If so, how?

We use the internet almost exclusively for promotion. We are very active on social media, and we try to engage our fans as much as possible through facebook posts, twitter messages and instragram pictures. We also do advertisements and sponsored posts on Facebook to widen our reach. We like doing Facebook ads because we can target our existing and potential fans.

We have relationships with many blogs and youtube channels. We send them promotional material through email blasts, and they regularly post our content.

Physical promotional efforts consist of posters that promote our local events in Montreal. We only do this at the venue we perform at, Le Belmont.

Do you sell your music over the internet? 

We sell our music through all major online music outlets, such as Itunes and Beatport. Our music is also available through streaming services like spotify.

To your knowledge, do fans obtain your music without paying for it - by burning CDs, file sharing, or other means? How do you feel about this? 

Our fans definitely obtain our music without paying for it. Our songs can be easily found on torrents, music forums and file hosting services like mediafire. This doesn't anger us, because this is the reality in which we operate. People download songs for free, and we can't control it. Also, these people may be pirating our songs, but the fact remains that they are listening and becoming fans, so piracy is like a form of promotion that widens our listener base. The more people know us and hear our music, the more will come to our shows, which is where we want to make money.

That said, we do appreciate people who actually buy our songs, because it does provide some revenue to help support our work.

Presumably you want to expose your music to as many potential fans as possible. You probably also want to earn money for the work that you do. Where do you draw the line?

We definitely want to be known as much as possible, but it's true that there are certain things we would not do for exposure. We wouldn't do a Britney Spears remix, for example. because it wouldn't match with our vision for our sound. We also wouldn't appear on TV doing a fake DJ set. I think for us, the line is more something we establish on a case-by-case basis. If one of us isn't comfortable with a potential appearance, promotional activity or partnership, we discuss it and determine if it's something we can be proud of, or if it's something that could be embarassing, against our artistic ideals or something that would upset our existing fanbase.

Source of image here

During my quest to find many artists who have their own opinion on piracy for music, movies etc. many of their views were similar but the way they personally presented their own opinion was interesting. For my live (In Person!) interview I happened to interview the guitarist Jesse Vuona who currently is with the band Thunderbloods but he was most popular for his work with Read Yellow. He was a student at University of Massachusetts Amherst when he co-formed Read Yellow, my interview with Jesse was live and recorded so I have the video file located within.

            Whilst searching for opinions of artists whose work I happen to enjoy I came across a few articles regarding 50 cent's opinion on music piracy today. 50 cent (Curtis James Jackson III) is an American born rapper from the queens is very famous among the rap industry. In my first article that I found, 50 simply implored that the piracy of music should be accepted as a fad of the generation and is not going away anytime soon. He said, "I don't think the music business is dying. I think we're just experiencing technology and we just have to pass new laws, eventually, to change how music is being distributed,” which basically states that it should be regulated but needs to also be accepted.

50 cent brought up a good point by bringing the movie business into the picture because piracy is said to affect them more than the music industry. He said that “when you got your blockbuster film doing $120 million in a weekend and then that blockbuster film that they spent $120 million comes out and nobody goes to see but everybody watched it because they could pull it off their computer and see it on HD at home on a theatre. They'll change those laws". He has a very valid point here indeed.

Another artist that I found had a much stronger opinion against piracy and was very, very frustrated with what it has/will do to music. Gene Simmons was subjected to a DDoS attack from angry Anonymous members last week.

“How are you going to get paid for it if people can just get it for free? The record industry doesn't have a f*****g clue how to make money,” said an angry Simmons back in 2007.

“It’s only their fault for letting foxes get into the hen house and then wondering why there’s no eggs or chickens. Every little college kid, every freshly scrubbed little kid’s face should have been sued off the face of the earth. They should have taken their houses and cars and nipped it right there in the beginning.”

Roll forward into 2010 and it seems little has changed for the KISS front man.

“Make sure your brand is protected. Make sure there are no incursions. Be litigious. Sue everybody. Take their homes, their cars. Don’t let anybody cross that line.”

Simmons had an angry look at this issue and he would not give up on his rants against those who hacked and distributed music.

Graham Cluley is a technology expert and gave his words about the negative opinions of artists like Mr. Simmons:

“We have seen a rise in the last year of 'hacktivism', hacking groups like Anonymous and Lulzsec who hack for political reasons or because they have an issue with somebody. Sometimes entertainment figures have suffered as a result because people find it entertaining.”

"In Gene Simmons' case he was quite outspoken regarding peer to peer file sharing and people who pirated music and that obviously angered a lot of people who are part of that community."

Piracy: What do the Artists Think?

     Ben Taliesin is a student at MHS and he makes money off of D.J.ing at parties in the area. Ben wasn't well educated in copyright laws which is surprising considering DJing teeters on the edge of legality. Ben gets most of his music legally off of iTunes and streams music using Pandora. However, he also illegally downloads music from youtube and recently a fellow DJ and friend gave him around 2,000 songs. He didn't know that his friend giving him copies of all of these songs broke copyright laws and was fairly surprised when he was informed of this. Ben mostly plays music at sweet 16's and has started playing music at the school dances. None of the venues he plays at pay licensing fees for the music Ben plays as they are supposed to. He takes requests at parties and when he doesn't have these songs in his library he quickly goes and illegally downloads them. Ben does mix and make some of his own original music that sometimes involves copyrighted music but he has not started to distributed it, so this is legal. Ben has mixed feelings about free downloading of music. He tries to legally buy most of his music but he feels that illegally downloading music has become accepted in society. He believes that everyone should have access to music and thinks that free streaming services like pandora are a good solution to the problem. When asked if his DJing has changed his feelings about this issue he didn't think that this was the case. As of right now Ben doesn't have a website but he is working on getting one up and running. He can be contacted at his email Ben@raven2.com.

      There are a lot of artists completely against music piracy. Some of these include Dixie Chicks, Stevie Wonder,Sean (P. Diddy) Combs, and Shakira. The Dixie Chicks have been quoted saying "It may seem innocent enough, but every time you illegally download music a songwriter doesn't get paid. And, every time you swap that music with your friends a new artist doesn't get a chance. Respect the artists you love by not stealing their music. You're in control. Support music, don't steal it." They bring up the point that people who download music are pushing new artists out of the industry. They don't seem too concerned about themselves but rather new artists who will get underpaid for their hard work. The Dixie Chicks think that in order to help  promote your favorite musicians you must buy their music and show it to friends but not give it to them.
 "Everyone who loves music should be able to enjoy the wonderful recordings that are created. But it's no secret that it takes hard work, expense and many people to make great recordings. Artists and composers -particularly the younger ones - will not stand a chance of creating music in the future if their recordings are simply stolen in this way." -Luciano Pavarotti Brings up the valid point that everyone should have access to music but it takes a lot of  time and money to create. He believes that it is essential that people pay for their music because it is unsustainable for people not to.

 Shakira has also been quoted supporting music download. On the Huffington Post website she says "I like what's going on because I feel closer to the fans and the people who appreciate the music, It's the democratization of music in a way. And music is a gift. That's what it should be, a gift." on the topic of music piracy. She is saying that the good part of piracy is the fact that everyone has the opportunity to listen to it but the bad part is that the musicians don't make any money.  

What do artists personally think?

This picture is from the creative commons section on the Flickr website. It was taken on August 7, 2012 and uploaded by Mennonite Church USA Archives.


Kat Quinn was a student here at MHS just as all of us are now. She graduated in 2006 and moved to New York City to pursue her dreams as a song writer. I contacted Kat through Facebook and was lucky enough to interview her even though she is on a very tight schedule.

Ellie(E): Do you use your music career entirely to make a living? If not, what else do you do to earn money? 

Kat(K): I don’t. I also have a part time job at a Private Equity firm.

E: What are your big sources of income based on your music career (CD's, ticket sales, iTunes/mp3 downloads, etc.)?
K: The biggest for me is getting payed for live shows probably.. whether it be from a tip jar, a pre-arranged price from the venue, or ticket sales. And I guess I usually factor in CD sales to the overall amount I made at the show.. so that’s definitely a part of it too. But I definitely make the most money from playing live.

E: Do you promote your music using the internet? If so, how? I do. I’m on most of the major music-related sites.. iTunes, Facebook, Bandcamp, Reverbnation, Youtube, etc.

K: I use it mostly for promoting shows at this point (by posting about events and news, or creating and inviting people to events), but will definitely be utilizing it more during my next EP release.

E: How do you sell your music? If you have more than one way please state all ways. (iTunes, the internet, just CD's, etc.)

K: I sell it on the internet- iTunes, CDBaby, Bandcamp, eMusic, and I think other sites (I’m not totally sure all the sites where it’s sold bc CDBaby distributes it to a lot of different music-selling sites). I also sell CDs at my shows.

E: To your knowledge, do you know if your fans get music by not paying for it? (burning CD's, file sharing, mp3 converters, etc.) How do you feel about this even if it's not happening to you?

K: I don’t know if it happens to me. I know people listen on Spotify or YouTube, but I think that’s all great. I also give out free downloads of songs, especially if someone signs up for my mailing list. For me, I’m definitely in the stage where I just want the music out there, and I have a part time job to keep me from needing to have money-making my priority with music right now. Right now the priority is having as many people listen as possible. There might come a day when that changes, but right now I don’t mind.

E: Most likely you want your music out there to as many fans possible. How far will you go to become more famous?

K: I won’t go that far. I really love writing songs, which is how I got into this. I have grown to love performing and would like to have a growing fanbase, but writing is my number one thing as opposed to singing and the lifestyle that goes with it. I want the songs to get out there, but for me, the less famous the better.

I found in my research that there is an ad campaign that is trying to get rid of the illegal download of music on the internet. Artists like Eminem, Stevie Wonder, Shakira, Britney Spears, and a few others have signed to be on this campaign. Eminem writes "I'm sorry; when I worked 9-to-5, I expected to get a paycheck every week. It's the same with music; if I'm putting my heart and all my time into music, I expect to get rewarded for that. I work hard and anybody can just throw a computer up and download my music for free. It could kill the whole purpose of making music."I have also found that Madonna, who is also part of the campaign, isn't very happy about the fact that people pirate her music. On the MTV website there is an article about Madonna's thoughts about the file traders. She asks the file traders "What the f--- do you think you're doing?"

How do artists feel about music piracy?

     The Half Moon Jug Band is a folk/rock band originating from Maine. The three members of the band are Troy (guitar and banjo, and sings), Mike (drums), and Steve (bass, harmonica, and some singing). I spoke to Troy about his view on music piracy and how he sells his music.
Me: Do you sell your music over the internet?
Troy: "Yes, I sell music over the internet."
Me: Do you earn your living entirely through music, or do you have other sources of income?
Troy: "I make some of my living through music, but not all of it."
Me: As a musician what is your main source of income.
Troy: "Ticket sales and fees for playing concerts are the biggest money makers. CD sales, downloads and fees paid by streaming services like Spotify make up less than a quarter of my music earnings."
Me: Do you use the internet to promote your music? If so, how?
Troy: "I use the internet to promote my music via email newsletters, Facebook, Twitter, Spotify and blogging on websites like www.halfmoonjugband.com."
Me: To your knowledge, do fans obtain your music without paying for it - by burning CDs, file sharing, or other means? How do you feel about this?
Troy: "I'm sure that people have been copying my CDs since I started selling them twelve years ago and I'm sure they copied the cassettes I released back in the 1990s. I wish they didn't. I wish they bought my music directly from me or a retailer. That being said, I know there's nothing I can do to stop it. So, I don't worry too much about it. Most of the money I make is through performing, anyway, and that's something that cannot be copied. Sometimes a family of four will come to a show and buy one CD and four T-shirts. They'll rip the CD onto their phones and iPods and share the tunes. But they can't do that with one T-shirt. So, I end up making more money on T-shirts than music. The shirt is a souvenir of the show that they had a great time at, so it's kind of an extension of the show itself. That's what I get paid to do, put on a show."
Me: Presumably you want to expose your music to as many potential fans as possible. You probably also want to earn money for the work that you do. Where do you draw the line?
Troy: "Sure, I'd like to make more money, everyone wants that. But I'd drive myself crazy sitting around worrying about the money I'm not making when someone shares a file or rips and burns a CD. I'd be lying if I said I'd never shared a file or copied a CD. Recorded music has only been a commodity (something you can buy and sell) for about a hundred years. For a thousand years before that, musicians were paid to write and perform music. They got paid to entertain someone in the here and now, live. That's what we're going back to. Musicians are once again getting paid to put on a show instead of sell objects like records or CDs."
     Singer-songwriter Norah Jones supports piracy. She says that if people hear it, then she is happy. In an interview Norah stated, " I'm not going to say go and steal my album, but you know i think its great that young people who don't have a lot of money can listen to music and be exposed to new things." Norah Jones also stated that illegal downloading could hurt new artists, but she still
stands behind her opinion that music piracy is fine.
     There are also some artists who oppose music piracy. One of these musicians is Elton John. In a letter John stated, " I am of the view that the unchecked proliferation of illegal downloading (even on a "non commercial" basis) will have a seriously detrimental effect on musicians, and particularly young musicians and those composers who are not performing artists." The article states that John's opinion about music piracy has causes conflict between him and some of his other artist friends.
     Overall there is a common theme on how artists feel about music piracy. The famous, well established artists feel that music piracy is fine and that everyone should be able to obtain and listen to music. However, up and coming artists tend to feel that they want to make money on their music no matter what. In conclusion, there are many opinions about music piracy out there, but no matter what someone's opinion is the likely can not make a change, it is up to the cultural changes of society to make a difference in illegal downloading and piracy.

The Professional Opinion

In my previous blog post, I talked about how to define music's inherent value and when it is okay to download music illegally. "In putting my music up on YouTube, I would feel very honored if people liked it enough to download my songs, even without paying for it." 

But what do I know about making a living off of music? I'm a 16-year-old girl who does a little bit of everything as a hobby and is fortunate enough to have parents with enough money that I don't have to worry about earning a significant amount to help them with the bills, as some teens my age do. So what's the opinion of musicians who actually need the money from their music to make a living?


Instead of trying to find interviews of artists that I listen to all the time, I specifically searched for an artist who supported music piracy, an artist who was strongly against it, and then I interviewed an artist who has mixed feelings on the subject.

Photo Gallery: Radiohead
Photo: Photo: WENN

Ed O'Brien from Radiohead (an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire) clearly states in a video message for the Midem music conferance: "I have a problem when people in the industry say '[piracy]'s killing the industry, it's the thing that's ripping us apart'...I don't actually believe it is... [Pirates] might not buy an album, but they're spending their money buying concert tickets, a T-shirt, whatever." O'Brien goes on to say that instead of pirated music, it is the that way music is shared itself that is the problem. He says, "It's an analogue business model in a digital era. The business model has to change. You've got to licence out more music –  have more Spotifys, more websites selling more music. You've got to make it slightly cheaper to get music in order to compete with the peer-to-peers." (Source)

Photo: JANE MINGAY

In contrast, Lily Allen avidly campaigns against music piracy. On her new website, she posts messages from prominent supporters of her cause. In September of 2009, she said peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing is a "disaster" for emerging artists "as it's making it harder and harder for new acts to emerge". Artists who back up Allen's opinion include James Blunt, Gary Barlow, Gary Kemp, Natasha Khan, etc. Allen's rallying cry was in response to comments made by members of the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), which includes musicians from bands such as Radiohead and Pink Floyd, who called for "more creative ways" to combat file-sharing than disconnecting music fans from the internet. (Source)

Photo Credit Unknown

To the left is Austin Willacy, "a critically acclaimed singer/songwriter who has toured extensively throughout the U.S and Europe as a member of The House Jacks" (quote from his website). During my interview with him, Willacy told me that he knows that his music is pirated but "much less than Katy Perry’s." He then said that he wants people to hear his music, and, "if they get it for free and it speaks to them, that’s O.K." The main challenge he faces concerning piracy is that "it is not free to make the recordings.  I want people who want to have my music to have it, but not being compensated for it at all would be an unsustainable system."


Willacy's music is available through iTunes and CDBaby. Other than his solo career, Willacy is also the director of ‘Til Dawn, Youth in Arts,’ which is an award-winning teen a cappella group and is a member of a groundbreaking all-vocal rock band called The House of Jacks.

As you can see, the opinions of professional musicians vary depending on their status from just-starting-out to making-it-big. Personally, I agree with Austin Willacy and Ed O'Brien. But again, I'm not a professional.

"I have a problem when people in the industry say 'it's killing the industry, it's the thing that's ripping us apart'," O'Brien said in a video message for the Midem music conference. "I don't actually believe it is... [Pirates] might not buy an album, but they're spending their money buying concert tickets, a T-shirt, whatever."
R
ead more at http://www.nme.com/news/radiohead/49390#WzLthtwzQtBC0mWG.99

"I have a problem when people in the industry say 'it's killing the industry, it's the thing that's ripping us apart'," O'Brien said in a video message for the Midem music conference. "I don't actually believe it is... [Pirates] might not buy an album, but they're spending their money buying concert tickets, a T-shirt, whatever."
Read more at http://www.nme.com/news/radiohead/49390#WzLthtwzQtBC0mWG.99

"I have a problem when people in the industry say 'it's killing the industry, it's the thing that's ripping us apart'," O'Brien said in a video message for the Midem music conference. "I don't actually believe it is... [Pirates] might not buy an album, but they're spending their money buying concert tickets, a T-shirt, whatever."
Read more at http://www.nme.com/news/radiohead/49390#WzLthtwzQtBC0mWG.99