I love the idea

I disagree. Music pirating is just another part of the Internet revolution. And while i do in fact believe that music pirating is illegal and immoral, it is in fact helping all of us. Because now the greedy corporate jackholes running the top five are no longer able to dictate to us what we should listen to. We're going through your boy bands and your top 40 crap like a guy with gardettos at a weezer concert. And whuile i think that music pirating sure does deprive artists of income, consider this: In China, 95% of all music sales are pirated copies. Artists use cd's as promotions for concerts, not the other way around. A recent USA article quoted "Will there ever be the equivalent of ITunes in China?' 'No, and there never will be'" and if China is the future then the recording industry hollering and whining at teenagers to stop pirating music is all in vain. I'm sorry Britney Spears if instead of making 5,000,000 dollars today you make instead 4,999,995 because I took a pirated copy of "Oops, I Did it Again" but you can kiss my ass because you make more money in one year than 10 middle class citizens make in 30 years. So stop whining and start looking at the facts: Eventually, music will be free. The music industry whining like little girls about music pirating will hardly postpone the inevitable, and artists should get used to the fact that their music is being copied for free.

Let me close with this: Isn't music supposed to be about the love of the art? If you're losing money because someone is taking your music for free, shouldn't you stop thinking about the money and start being stoked that so many people are listening to your music?

I totally agree with you. I am a musician myself. I do music because I love to do it. What I hate the most are those poser bands out there that all sound the same. The ones that do music for the money. They sign with a record company, and the record company gives them their lyrics and they get up on stage and play a few chords while singing a bunch of crappy lyrics they didn't make. I could give a rats ass if all those kinda bands lost money from pirating. My high school senior paper is on music pirating, and I am using some of your quotes in support of my opinion. Here is my thesis statement.
The action of downloading music from the internet is completely acceptable when considering the high cost of CD’s, the content quality of the CD (one hit single), and the revenue the music industry takes in without even counting the money received for sale of CD’s.

i believe music pirating is imoral and should be illegal, and like you, i am a musician, i am currently playing guitar for a starting band called Doomsday Machine. Now, i agree with taking songs that the bands didnt even write because, there not losing anything that they worked really hard on. How ever my band and i do work really hard, we havent even been together a whole year and were already fixing to record our first album. All of our songs are original and we work really really hard on them. I would probably be pretty angry if we spent all that time on our music and ended up having people steal it with out paying a cent, i mean, there are web sites that allow you to purchase a song for only 99 cents, and i think that artists, real artists, are atleast entitled to that much per song per person that downloads it

I think that music pirating is immoral but really why not if people are gonna charge 20$ for a CD when you can download it for free or pay only 99 cents per song.
I dont think that it should be illegal, but i also think that prices on CDs should be much much lower.

HOLY SHIT DUMBASSES
pirating m,usic..
what the fuck is wrong with it
its better than buying a fucking cd with one or two good songs for 20$
complete dumbasses

Downloading music has actually opened the door for success in smaller labels. The internet has provided the ability for indipendent labels to advertise for less money and more effectively. Major labels in the last 10 years suffered as much as a 10% loss in sales while indie made a huge stride forward with actual musicianship and word of mouth hype.

As much as people do download lots of music, the appreciators will still spend money in order to intentionally support the musicians and labels they like. Not to mention that almost every band makes just about no money from CDs as it is: all they earn is from touring.

I just fucking bought a godsmack cd and it wont let me put it on my computer and therefore not on my ipod. While I do not agree with pirating music, this is absolutely ridiculous and it pisses me off. Big corporate record companies are putting music out of buisness because they take a major chunk of the 99 cents that you pay for that song. Meanwhile some bands could not live without pirating. I believe its ok to pirate dragonforce because noone knows who they are, and therefore i would like my friend to hear it so im going to burn it for you. Then he might actually go and buy some more of there music. However, bands such as fall out boy, weezer, hawthorne heights etc. there music shouldn't matter if its pirated or not. I havent read any articles about fall out boy staving. I have only read articles about them getting endorsements, so what the hell do they need all this fuckin money for anyway. Its pretty obvios that those big corporate record labels dont care about the music and what it sounds like and skilled musicianship. The music industry cant live without pirating, and thats a fact.

I think Your all wrong as record companies are greedy evil scum who are intrested in nothing but money. This goes for some artists aswell.

"music should be free"
forget that!
musicians need the money to play better shows, and to buy better equiptment, for you to enjoy them better.
I admire many local bands around SanDiego and I'm discusted that people will copy a CD of a band that only are able to play at cafe's.

I think that downloading music is the best thing that has happened to thw world and i dont have to spend money and i can get all the music I want for free!!!
AWHOWW YA!

I don't believe in pirating music, but i don't believe in the 7% musicians get off their 20$ cd's, while the record companies make all the rest. I think artists should have the right to make 50 or more percent off their cd's, and have like a 10$ cd instead, which would allow them to make more than 5x more, and maybe people would buy more of there abums, and pirate less, and then everyone's happy.

Forgive me if I find this thread somewhat humorous; "And while i do in fact believe that music pirating is illegal and immoral, it is in fact helping all of us."

The argument if quite simple; if something is immoral, it does not help all of us. Furthermore, if you personally believe something is immoral, you shouldn't do it. I think I should write a book; "Morality for Dummies".

I'm sorry, but in order to do something you need justifaction, and the reasons given don't hold up.

Firstly, the artists and industry have produced a product, and deserve money for that product. Surely, if the artitsts weren't happy with the deal, they wouldn't sign. I tell you what, I'll rob the products of your labour and see how you like it.

Don't want to pay 20 euro for a CD? Don't, and don't pirate it either. That will send them a message, show that you're serious, not just cheap.

Stealing music is unfair on the people who actually pay for it; they're not industry fat cats; they have to make up for your piracy.

Secondly, the music industry is just that, an industry, and it needs revenue to survive. Less revenue means less money to invest in new artists, and ultimatley means less new music.

And lastly, for those of you who would like to see the music industry implode, so that all music would be "free", I'm sorry, but you're just extremely naieve. Sure, people write music for the love music. But there's a difference between doing it as a hobby and doing it full time; it's not all glamour. A little bit more of an incentive is required.

"HOLY SHIT DUMBASSES
pirating m,usic..
what the fuck is wrong with it
its better than buying a fucking cd with one or two good songs for 20$
complete dumbasses"

I think that a better arguement is required for this post

i think music pirating is very nice because if u want a cd or anything all u do is go 2 the internet and copy it there and it is as easy as 123

it is very easy to pirate music all thought it might be wrong and we should get music should be free so pirating should not be wrong and we who pirate arent wrong because i can get to know musicians faster that way and it is cheaper just as long as u dont pirate cds for selling then i believe it is wrong

i think pirating music does destroy our music industries and we should cosuder the fact that artists work very hard at making their albums asuccess and we as fans should help our favourite artists out there and buy like the proper kind the original other wise we wont hav any music to listen to

i think pirating music is dumb even if i steal from stores music is good and u should respect that and pay, pluse the only good music is worth paying, if u dont like it then dont get it morons

im doing this for legal studies. The copyright laws in Australia are sooo strict. we are basically only have the right to listening to our cd in a dark room where no one can hear it. I just think with the indie bands that survive on people downloading their eps..its essential. Personally i dwnload those one off tracks I hear on the radio..if i fall in love with the artist then i buy the album. the fact is that its so freely available to 'steal' the music that the ramifications tht this is supposedly having on the music industry is really not conveyed to us. I will always buy my favourites, but the rest..its just too easy to download.

thanks all of you so much for the comment i needed something like this for an assignment

pirating music is horrible
the music people pirate are music they like, so they are not being a very good fan
if music was infact free then no one would want to be a musician cause there would be no money there, so free music is a dumb idea
and if you decide to pirate music and not buy it how does that help the artist out? if you are not willing to pay for the cd then don't like the music and find some other artist that you love so much to buy the cd from, cause the piraters are fucking the music industry over
and for those of you talking about illegal downloading of music helping out the "indie" music, well that is just sad cause indie sucks so bad that people aren't willing to support them except illegally, therefore don't pirate, just buy the cd or don't like the artist

Quote from mister noname. "The argument if quite simple; if something is immoral, it does not help all of us." So it would be immoral for a murderer to kill someone, but not immoral to sentence him to death, like we do in the United States? Sometimes things that are immoral do help other people out. For example, the United States was practically founded on fighting immorally. Instead of being 'honorable' like the English and line up to gun it out, we basically used guerrilla tactics to beat them, even attacking them in their sleep. If that isn't immoral I don't know WHAT is. But it certainly helped us out, we have an entire country to show for it.

See, the problem is, with this, its that music pirating has changeed so much over time. Once, it was free music, (Napster). Heres the thing. I've never heard the Ranconteurs. Ever. Until i heard Steady as she goes on the radio. Then i downloaded the song, and now, i have the album - which i bought for the 17.99. And the thing is, it was worth it. To them, I think it was worth losing however much they lost on that one song, to make up with the album purchase.

I don't care what anybody says. Pirating music, along with anything else over the internet, is stealing. I have a friend that used to do it, or she might still do it. She only did it for music that she didn't like and wouldn't buy from the record companies anyway. I told her that she shouldn't do it at all. Many artists lose money every single day over pirating music, DVD's and other things. I also think that anyone that does it should be severely punished. How would you feel if millions of people were stealing from you. I mean come on, that would really stink.

This kind of argument is completely like a double edged sword. Music pirating can be good in the sense that since it spreads like the plague, eventually everyone has heard the music, and if they like it, should BUY that music so thos musicians can make more, better music. The sad fact is that people who, for the love of music, want to make it their career, will probably end up making like 100 bucks for a cd that about 10000 people have, the whole industry is dying, not just the huge labels for pop music, but for all those musicians that are trying to make a living doing something they love

you are right my friends.we should get music free of cost because we have some other stuff's to spend money on............

i dont think that ur making any kind of since if u think that thats wat u think and u keep that to ur self.... because no one wants to buy a cd 4 $20... when we can just down load it.. that makes sense too.

i love music i listen to it in the shower my name is meghan stephensen and i like to eat pork i will not stop iuntill ive eaten every pig in the united states. i am a huge cristian rock fan and i love downloading all the new hits! yeaaaaa baby! see what im saying i love you all and goodnight~!!

i think downloading music is ok, why go and pay around $20 dollars for a cd when you can easyly and comfortably download a cd when these rappers and singers are making millions of dollars just to sing a couple of lines. even if more than half of the people download there stuff they still make millions of dollars and i think they should just deal with it these greedy greecemonkeys!! i mean sure everyone wants money but not to the point were people are waiting on you hand and foot and still if they went broke everyone knows there face and there getting pretty much anything they want free. same with actors they have the studios pay for there hotel rooms that are like a million dollars a night and it still isnt good enough they still complain, people need to just appreciate what they have got and stop wanting more!!!!!

Record companies simply need to make CD's more accessable and cheaper so the public will be more willing to buy them. While downloading free songs is wrong, other alternatives are currently overpriced. If record companies lowered thier prices, more people would buy their CDs, which would support the artists and cut down on free downloading.

CDs are too expensive. I have not too much income, and I have to chose when I go to a store, so I want 2 CDs, with maybe 1 good song each, or do I want a video gmae that gives me 100% enjoyment of hours and hours? Music needs to be a lot cheaper. Consider radio; a completely free source of music. Even ifg you stop muysic pirating, people can record songs off of radio or Youtube videos. It would be really hard, expensive and pointless to stop pirating.

First off, the artists don't see the money they make off of CD's for a long time because they usually are paying back huge advances. Then after that, they only make a microscopic amount off of record sales, if any. The artist only makes money off of tours and merchandising.. That is, if they only perform and they don't write their own songs. If they write their own songs then they get royalties, but they get reduced royalties. What it all comes down to is that artists aren't really that affected by pirating if they're not writers. I'm a music business student. I would propose a small fee for internet providers to tack onto regular fees for the internet, and then have those fees go to pay royalties. Therefore, no one could pirate off of the internet.

Pirating music isn't just ruining music by depriving artists of money. It also reduces the pride that people have in their music. I have a friend who can't even name his favorite band because all that he has listened to is the single hits that he got for free. He probably doesn't know 10 album names and would never go to a concert because he doesn't apreciate music. Making music worthless in money makes music worthless in every way. Also whoever said that artists should be making music for the love of it sounds like a communist. Music should be inspired but an artist has to be able to make a living and afford instruments, advertisment, and everything else he might need.

im wiggley

im wiggley

you guys do not realize how much pirating music hurts indie-style bands, to produce a good album you are looking at spending roughly 10,000 dollars, for a mere couple thousand more, an ad in alternative press, when you sell a cd for 10 dollars, that is alot of cd's you need to sell to cover your debts, and expecially with the way venues pay now, yes bands have merch they can make money on, but when all that money is spent on gas and food for the next show it doesnt seem so rediculous to buy that cd, especially when a band is worth it

Pirating music is the best. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahaha........................

HahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahhaahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahaahahahahahhahahahahaahPirating is the best suckers

people should get music for free !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! contact me for more info

pirating sucks just joking hahahahahahahahahzhhahahahahahhahahahahahahahahhahahahahhahahqhahahahahahashahhahahahahahhahahahhahahaplatypus's look funnyhahahahahhahahahahhahahahahhahahahahhahahZ hi mom

pirating music is the best you guys are just jealous because you are nubes if you have a problem with this email your credit card number to me hotmaildotca@gmail.com and i promise to start legaly buying DVD's

you guys want to argue? go argue w/the RIAA. TBH, I'm doing a report on why piracy is bad but tbh, every song on my mp3 is pirated and i dont see the bad in it. I mean sure the low quality pirated music gives the artist a bad reputation but the music is free. Tbh, I read a report on Bill Gates pirating music. So even Mr. Richbutt over here is pirating music, and you don't see the Federal Law putting him in jail? I'm not paying 15$ for a CD w/3 good songs thats total B.S. Piracy FTW.

Pirating music is both good and bad. Good that people can discover new music and buy merchandise, but artists lose even more money and might stop being an artist. >_>

hey guys, pirating music is ok sometimes, but if everyone does it all the time then its not good to do.
Peace

yall are all stupid. even if bands don't make much on CDs, they still make money on CDs. that little bit of money makes it able for them to make more CDs at a better quality. I'm writing a report on pirating and how its good and bad, and i've changed my mind it is bad. the main part of the project is itunes and i think its ok because even though they make a lot of money they also make it possible for us to get music cheap and they pay the bands and the record companies.

think you and goodnight.

I am doing this for a debate in my class and i was chose to be on the For piracy side but im basically nutral, I agree with both sides of Piracy so it is kind of hard to debate.

I think that illegal music rocks and it sounds better than legal music. You guys are all 30 living with your moms

i think cdog is right...even though i also pirate tons of music...i think he is absolutely right.

IDK guys this whole thing is making me crazy!!!! OMG

No one should download music... they should find a way to make limewire illegal.... every one should buy there music.

They should find a way to make Avani's posts illegal.

why should Artists and Record Companys make a profit from CD's? When is the last time you payed money to look at an advertisement or a billboard?
CD's should only cost no more than $2.50 a copy, because thats the cost to make it and have it shipped to stores. Artist's should profit on live concerts, not on the advertisement. Record companies should charge the artists for advertizing their music for them!
Too many artists profit more than doctors in this country . I think this system is very flawed. I believe there's nothing wrong with downloading music to see if it's worth going to the concert.

lets face it.. the biggest thing that blows the record companies out of the water is the fact that the damn companies make and sell the recording equipment.. Sony records. sony dvd burners, and so on.. this is a lot like the pot calling the kettle black.. dont sit there and tell me to not use the equipment you want me to buy.. ohhhh geeeeshhh i forgot.. im suppose to do just what you told me to do... lets face it.. if i purchased equipment im gonna use it.. if you make it for sale im gonna buy it.. if you sell cds im gonna buy em and copy em.. your just pissed off that things went faster and further then you planned for.. now pay the artists what they deserve.. cuz you arnt spending the rest of a 20 buck cd on anything.. album art what a joke.. plastic containers for cds another joke.. cds.. hmmm i can buy em from sony maxell etc etc for about .02 a piece.. so where does the rest of the money go.. hhhhhhmmmmmm

mike

I would just like to say one thing: Who is to say that artists and record companies lose money from pirated music? If downloading music for free were unavailable, then I would just go without the music. I would never "waste" $15-20 on a single CD. Therefore whether I download or not, no one makes any money except for my ISP. Having said this, I believe that pirating music does help artists out. Just about all of my friends download music for free, but they also buy the CDs for the artists they really like and want to support. So if pirating were somehow stopped (which is impossible), there would be no more or less money spent on my friend's parts. Also, in the U.S. society, people like the sense of ownership. Some people will just buy things, like CDs, just to own the real thing regardless if they already illegally obtained the music or not.

Finally, I am willing to bet that the recording industry is benefiting from illegal downloading. When they catch people they sue for outrageous amounts, I'm not 100% sure on the figures but I know its somewhere between 75,000 and 150,000 dollars per song! So I'll let you decide which is more immoral: "illegally" downloading music, or suing for insane amounts of money for each song downloaded.

i agree with the guy who said you were a dumbass

f*ck off man....artist are being payed to play their ass off for good music, they have to do those good shows and those music videos... music companies lose alot when people download illegally music...if music companies start getting less money.....singers and groupes will not be payed and the groupes and singers will not be motivated to do music if they are not payed..and if they dont do music....we will not have anymore 50 cent....rihanna...metallica..what what ever singer or group you listen to....so stop piracy!!! it only costs 20 $ a cd...its not much...

Fuck this shit! I say I you want to do that shit, go for it! But if your dumbass get gets caught you'll be taking it up the ass by Bubba! So I'll just stick to dealing drugs

Melissa, you obviously didn't read anything I wrote. What you said doesn't make any sense. Piracy will never be stopped, and has been going on ever since the Internet took off. I'm not saying the piracy of music should be legalized, because that wouldn't solve anything. However, it should just be left alone. It's simple economics. If someone thinks a CD they want is not worth $20, they won't buy it. The fact that they could get it for free doesn't play into the fact that they wouldn't pay $20, that's completely independent of the situation. So, with free music available or not, they wouldn't have bought the CD. Therefore no one loses money from pirated music. Now here's the solution the the problem of music piracy: lower prices so that the price of the CD is less than the risk of downloading illegally. This seems simple, but regulating prices does more harm than good, so there is NO solution to the problem. The best thing to do is leave it alone and let it work itself out naturally. Also, people like yourself should stay out of other people's business when it doesn't concern you. Just because you listen to music doesn't mean it affects you when someone downloads illegally. So why don't you just leave it alone.

If you guys have sooo many morals, why don't you just download the cd illegaly and se like 5 dollars to the artist to show you appreciation instead of buying it for like $20 and the artist getting $1. If you're heaps rich give the the whole $20! Maybe if the artist wrote back to you, you'd be even more inspired. Just a thought... But i don't listen to the radio and i have not bought a cd often of a friends advise, but i will download it to give it a test, and 90% of the time there's only about 1 or 2 descent songs on the album anyway. Imoral? Haha yeah right, I can live with myself, if i couldn't then i'd just donate to charity with the money save downloading it. Or pay one of my millions of bills... I know if i was an artist, i'd be just as happy with everyone knowing the words of my songs than, a little bit of extra cash... And the more famous i got the more i could charge for special appeariences and advertisements etc....

"I believe that pirating music does help artists out."

This is the most ass-backwards statement that anyone on the "free" music side of the debate could possibly dream up. How the fuck is it helping the artist out to NOT get paid royalties due to a lack of sales of their music? Does it help photographers to not get paid for the pictures they take and put out in magazines/art books/etc/? Better yet, since so many of you think that music is "intangible" (ie, something you can't really hold in your hands), should a computer programmer get paid for writing programs that don't really exist? Should a plummer get paid for work he does to fix your pipes, even though you can't hold that intangible work in your hands?

So, "free" music helps artists to get well-known? Great... they can be well-known and penny-less. Who could ask for more?

See, this "free" music thing works out great for Trent Reznor because his ass has already made his millions. He doesn't have to give a shit anymore. But if he was still cleaning floors as a janitor and wanted to make a living selling his music there's no way he'd be such a strong proponent of this "free" music model.

You people don't seem to understand that the most money an artist ever makes is from royalties off having written songs, which get paid to him via music sales. Money made from touring basically pays for the tour. Merchandising basically pays for merchandising. What pays the artist for the music he's made is the royalties off music he's sold. But if he's not selling music, how the fuck is he getting paid? Maybe artists should just start charging people more to get into the concerts to help off-set their losses in music sales.

I think downloading music online for free is an ok thing to do.
Any artists that are making music just for the money and complaining when people download it *cough*metallica*cough* are sell outs. First off why are you even playing music only for money play music for the fact that people like it and its what you like to do. Sell out bands making a big stink over people pirating there music don't deserve to make any money at all. So what if they aren't gonna make millions off of a cd they made atleast there making more money then most other people around the world. HELL AT LEAST THEY HAVE MONEY. The only case where i think its not ok to pirate the music is if it would ever be for a good cause such as helping people BESIDES the musicians and dumbass major labels. Most of the bands and producers are greedy little pigs that deserve to die. They could at least do something good with the millions that they are making