Do All Musicians Hate Piracy?:
One would automatically assume everyone hates being stolen from. People tend to report burglaries and carjackings. But what about when listeners steal from musicians, when they click ‘download’ on websites not quite as official as iTunes? Many would assume that all artists would be furious with their fans, and while some definitely are, for example Prince is well known for being strongly against piracy, many artists are claiming they are accepting of the way people obtain music in the modern day.
Lady Gaga, for example, came out saying she is completely fine with illegal downloading and file sharing, according to Techdirt She recently told iTunes that touring makes up for the loss of actual music sales, “You know how much you can earn off touring, right? Big artists can make anywhere from $40 million from 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,”.
But it’s not just Gaga! Shakira agrees, according to Daily Mail. “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.” Shakira is saying it’s okay for her fans to feel free to listen to her music without being forced to spend their money. She’s giving them the go-ahead to download her music and to think of it as gift from Shakira herself.
Of course I did not get the chance to speak with either Lady Gaga or Shakira themselves, but I did get the chance to interview a smaller scale local artist. Professional bassist Adam Saylor, is a member of the Boston based reggae group Soul Rebel Project, as well as the hip-hop/spoken word collective Left Over Wine. Despite not making millions off of touring like Ms. Gaga, Saylor also agrees that there’s not much morally or ethically wrong with illegal file sharing.
When he was asked if he knows if people download his music without first paying for it or not Saylor replied, “Yes, we give away free music, I’m cool with it. I look at it as it’s like the new way of promoting yourself is giving away free music. It’s like a digital flier.” On his opinion of the illegal downloading of audio files he claims, “… I don’t think it should be illegal.” He believes this despite the fact that if punishments for illegal file sharing were more severe he could earn much more money. Even though the Internet is how most people obtain their music, Saylor says “I make the most money out of teaching lessons at the Marblehead School of Music. Second is playing gigs.”
Many people claim it is only okay to illegally download songs by wildly famous musicians, because they are so wealthy anyway they don’t need an extra dollar from that one iTunes sale. That it was only wrong to steal from musicians who aren’t big names in the media because illegally taking one of their songs is basically like taking a dollar from their pocket. But as Saylor has demonstrated these starving artists can find other more likely sources of income, like in his case, teaching, as they make their way up in the music world. I even asked, “But what about artists with no other source of income.” He replied simply with, “I don’t think it’s gonna change. Money is in playing live now. The only people making money on iTunes are the people with their stuff on the radio all the time. If you’re good enough, and you make yourself big enough, you’re gonna make money anyway.”
In short, no: not all musicians nowadays are completely against illegal file sharing.
Sources incase hyperlinks don't work:
Gaga's homepage: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100524/0032549541.shtml
Techdirt article: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100524/0032549541.shtml
Shakira's homepage: http://shakira.com/
Daily Mail article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1221639/Shakira-hits-Lily-Allen-illegal-downloading-row-claims-file-sharing-brings-closer-fans.html
Soul Rebel Project: http://www.soulrebelproject.com/
Left Over Wine: http://leftoverwine.wordpress.com/
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3 comments:
Even though I disagree with your opinion that music piracy is okay, I think your post was very well written and you had good facts to support your ideas. I think it is really interesting how you had such a unique person to interview and that added a different view point to your post.
I really like the way you opened up your blog post, the comparison caught my attention and made me think about it. The direct quotations from those artists really helped push your post, over all I agree with you and the artists.
I can tell that you believe that downloading is okay, so i understand why you would want to mostly write about that, but i think it would have been a more interesting post if you had also elaborated on the feelings of people against downloading.
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