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I don't like the almost religious self-righteousness of music pirates. Any time I've done it, it's been out of cheapness. Why is it so hard to admit obvious t

I don't like the almost religious self-righteousness of music pirates. Any time I've done it, it's been out of cheapness. Why is it so hard to admit obvious truth? And I first heard metallica (just like most bands) through the normal promotional vehicles which is probably the case for 95 percent of the people who eventually bought their albums.

cookiecaper 16y ago
>Any time I've done it, it's been out of cheapness. Why is it so hard to admit obvious truth? Because that's not the truth for a lot of music pirates. When you have free, unlimited access, you're willing to try out a lot of stuff that you wouldn't actually risk good money buying at the record store. The reality is that very few people actually buy an album without first deciding they like the music and want to listen to it forever -- they simply receive the first hearing over public airwaves or a friend's recommendation and sampling instead of BitTorrent. But many downloaders use BT as a sampling service and try out new music they'd never actually buy (at least, that's the idea when they first download the album), and by so doing introduce themselves to whole new genres, bands, etc., which gain their money in a variety of ways. Some may not purchase CDs for various reasons, probably foremost that CDs are a pain compared to a good torrent, but there are other revenue sources, like merchandising, concerts, etc. AND, even if someone tries out an album and decides they don't like it enough to pay the band, there is still a net benefit to the band in that the music has been heard by someone who otherwise would have never heard it. For many bands just that is enough, but for those with more commercial orientations, this can lead to a lot of financial benefit, because you never know when this person will be riding in the car with a friend who puts on a similar album and say, "You know, I listened to band X's album, it sounds a lot like this, you might want to check them out." The point is that there's really a lot of reason for both consumers and producers to be happy about filesharing. The 1:1 correlation of downloads to lost sales that media companies and their backers posit is really ridiculous, imo, and not remotely reflective of the real habits of the downloading populous.

cookiecaper 16y ago

>Any time I've done it, it's been out of cheapness. Why is it so hard to admit obvious truth? Because that's not the truth for a lot of music pirates. When you have free, unlimited access, you're willing to try out a lot of stuff that you wouldn't actually risk good money buying at the record store. The reality is that very few people actually buy an album without first deciding they like the music and want to listen to it forever -- they simply receive the first hearing over public airwaves or a friend's recommendation and sampling instead of BitTorrent. But many downloaders use BT as a sampling service and try out new music they'd never actually buy (at least, that's the idea when they first download the album), and by so doing introduce themselves to whole new genres, bands, etc., which gain their money in a variety of ways. Some may not purchase CDs for various reasons, probably foremost that CDs are a pain compared to a good torrent, but there are other revenue sources, like merchandising, concerts, etc. AND, even if someone tries out an album and decides they don't like it enough to pay the band, there is still a net benefit to the band in that the music has been heard by someone who otherwise would have never heard it. For many bands just that is enough, but for those with more commercial orientations, this can lead to a lot of financial benefit, because you never know when this person will be riding in the car with a friend who puts on a similar album and say, "You know, I listened to band X's album, it sounds a lot like this, you might want to check them out." The point is that there's really a lot of reason for both consumers and producers to be happy about filesharing. The 1:1 correlation of downloads to lost sales that media companies and their backers posit is really ridiculous, imo, and not remotely reflective of the real habits of the downloading populous.