Everyone
knows that the person that creates a song owns it, or do they? Once publishers,
and record deals get added into the mix, what seems black and white turns grey.
Free distribution of music and illegal downloading; make simply getting paid
for a song much more difficult. All of these contributing factors make
copyright and downloading a touchy topic, and confusing for just about anyone
who takes part in music world. The lines become blurred for even the artist’s
themselves, and some have voiced their opinions for or against all of these
things.
Talking
to an undiscovered artist, about how she acquired her music, led me to find
that even she is guilty of downloading off of youtube on occasion. But most of
the time she does buy CDs. When asking her about how she felt about people
downloading her music off of youtube she didn’t seem to mind. As for the free
distribution of music, she believed that it solved a lot of problems because
people download most of their music without paying for it anyway. She believed
that it wasn’t fair to an artist though, seeing that they are robbed of money
in the process of free distribution. Anytime a song is downloaded from the
internet, no matter what, an artist should be getting a contribution.
After
talking to her I realized how conflicting it is for an artist. Does free
distribution of music do more harm than good? An artist may answer yes to this,
but it does also broaden the fan base, and for many undiscovered artists that
is crucial in their career. She seemed conflicted in her own views, seeing how
fans downloading music off of youtube helped her, but also felt that artist
should be getting a contribution.
Other artists, discovered and
undiscovered, have some very strong opinions for and against piracy and
copyright. Two popular artists that have voiced their thoughts are the Beatles and
Lady Gaga. The Beatles are against piracy, supporting the crackdown on the
music copyright laws. Lady Gaga on the other hand doesn’t care about piracy.
The Beatles
support the music copy right laws, and how they are attempting to become
stricter. To show their support of the laws the Beatles created a short
animated video on youtube. The video doesn’t out right say that they are
against piracy, but shows how important music is to them, and all the stories
they shared through music. The video was
in support of the Music Matters campaign, which works to reach out to people
and show them the ethical reasons as to why they shouldn’t pirate songs. The
Music Matters campaign has attracted many other popular artists along with the Beatles
such as Sigur Ros and The Jam.
On the
other end of the spectrum is Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga used music as a way to create
her fan base and to connect to people to build her popularity. She believes
that pirating music doesn’t really matter, because the real money lies with
touring. Telling them to just go out and buy an album all the time is mean and
that you should go tour with your fans, from all over the world.
I can see how Lady Gaga would be in
support of pirating because she used it as a tactic to get herself off the
ground. Many other artists share the same beliefs as Lady Gaga such as Shakira,
Nora Jones, and Jack White. The controversy over the issue, and the sheer number
of songs and consumers, make solving piracy and copyright problems extremely difficult
to solve.
Sources:http://www.techdirt.com/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.
3 comments:
The artist whom you interviewed had very interesting opinions on the topic of illegal downloading and copyright laws. Is there a reason why you didn't mention her name?
I like how you elaborated on Lady Gaga's opinions and people who feel the same, i would have liked you to do the same with the Beatles and other people who have the same opinion.
It was interesting how your friend was somewhat conflicted with the copyright issue. She believes that artists deserve a contribution when people download their music, and yet she is guilty of this herself. This shows how frustrating copyright can be, and just how many people break copyright laws without realizing it, even if they support them!
Post a Comment