Artist’s Views on the Importance of Music

Artists from all over the world express different views on the inherent value of music and the issue of music piracy.  The artist’s opinions usually depend on his or her status, wealth and how successful he or she is in the music industry. The 1960’s Beatles star, Paul McCartney, originally stated that he had no issue with music piracy but in 2009 he stated, “If you get on a bus you've got to pay," McCartney said, "And I think it's fair, you should pay your ticket. The problem is you get a lot of young bands coming up and some of them aren't going to last forever, so if they have a massive hit that's going to pay their mortgage forever, they're going to feed the children on that and if they don't get that money, if they don't see that money, I think it's a bit of a pity."  Even though Paul McCartney was an artist who was extremely successful, his views still state that piracy isn’t the right thing to do especially with young bands that might only have one big hit.  He comes from an age where this had not been an issue, and where one would simply walk into a store and purchase “a 45”.  David Bowie, another artist from the 1960s, has a slightly different opinion on the matter.  “I don't even know why I would want to be on a label in a few years because I don't think it's going to work by labels and by distribution systems in the same way," Bowie said. "The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. I'm fully confidant that copyright, for instance, will no longer exist in 10 years, and authorship and intellectual property is in for such a bashing.”  David Bowie is saying that piracy is neither good nor bad and there is not much the world can do about it due to the recourses available to consumers.  These are two views from artists from the 60’s, so it is interesting to see what a current artist has to say.  Hayley Reardon is from Marblehead Massachusetts and is a singer/songwriter who shared how she promotes herself and explaines her feeling on music piracy.    “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.”  When asked how she feels about artists giving away music online for free, Hayley said, “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.” Finally she answered the question of illegally downloading music and how she feels if her fans did that with her own songs.  Hayley had mixed feelings about it and said, “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.”  Each artist shared a slightly different opinion on the matter, and it is interesting to see views of an artist from the 1960s, and an artist from 2013.