Care to Share? Illegal Downloading of Music... Is it okay?

For this assignment, I was fortunate to be able to connect with the lead singer of a California based band called Broken Anchor. Austin, the lead singer, and I communicated via Facebook message about his views on illegally downloading music and copyright laws.  His opinions about these topics were very interesting, and relevant to our class discussions. He even talked about the subject of music's inherent value without my even mentioning it!
Our conversation appears below:

Austin Hartley-Leonard (on right)

Q: Do you earn the majority of your income solely through music, or do you consider it as an interest or hobby?

A: I am a full time musician and I currently make my money solely through music, although I have to bartend here and there depending on the month, whether I'm on tour or not, times are tight, etc

Q: As a musician, what are your most lucrative sources of income: cd/mp3/iTunes sales, concert ticket sales for shows, lessons, or something else?

A:  As a musician the most lucrative source of income is licensing aka having my songs on film, television, and commercials

 Q: Do you use the Internet to promote your music? If so, how?

A: I use a band website, facebook, tumblr, twitter, vine, instagram, and bandcamp as promotional web tools

Q:Do you sell your music over the internet, or is it available on your website?

A:I sell my music via Bandcamp, iTunes, and on my own website. We offer a four song promotional ep for free as well.

Q: To your knowledge, do your fans obtain your music without paying for it by means of burning cd's, file sharing, bootlegging, or other means? How do you feel about this?

A: We gave away our first ten songs, and that's how we gained many of our early fans. You have to have exposure these days. The average music fan is hit with 100x more music every day than they were just 15 years back when I started in this business. No one is interested in paying for music from a band they have never heard of before. That is an old paradigm that is dying a slow torturous death. You have to gain fans before you can ask them for their money these days. It makes things tough but them's the breaks.

Q: 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?

A:I would say I draw the line at giving away our album. We have a promotional teaser that we allow fans to download.
I also draw the line at corporate use of songs. If you have the money, you have to spend it. I would never allow my music to be in a Toyota commercial for free simply for the exposure. I would never play a private event for free unless it was a charitable organization. It's tough out there and the inherent value of a song has gone down in the public's eyes. Monetizing what we do is tricky and you have to have some boundaries.

In addition to my conversation with Austin, I also researched other artists and their perspective on this subject.  During his 2010 People's Choice Award Acceptance Speech for Favorite Male Artist Country music star Keith Urban's views earned him a lot of criticism.  In thanking his fans for popularizing his music, Urban stated "I don't even care if you download it illegally, give it to your friends, I really don't care." He later apologized and explained that he is not in favor of the practice of illegally downloading music, and that his comments about it were widely misunderstood.
Kid Rock's views have also created a lot of buzz.  He made a sarcastic public service announcement  available for all on Youtube.
One has to wonder what he really meant when he encouraged not only the stealing of songs but of many other things.
There are many more artists out there who have shared their opinions about illegally downloading music and copyright laws, all of the answers are just a click away.

Kid Rock Photo: http://www.songonlyrics.com/kid-rock-biography
Keith Urban Photo: http://www.13abc.com/story/21784142/keith-urgan-to-play-in-toledo-in-november
Broken Anchor Photo: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPrfGSSEYFVho2RLoAOAufcUr94SByXoa9zK76yFL2BW12VtbiLbO7W-0P0j_PNkaVL1Z8-Vx5kq6teWq8Zm6JA5k5S8BVXC5vHPHBBQ7YYYcRJYsKJO0ssDelush7Ly0i47UZuHSw-r4/s0/