[wannabguitarist]

I have to give a short persuasive speech in my communications class and I decided to pick downloading music as my topic. What are everyone's opinions on downloading music ("illegally")? Who does it hurt more, the artist, or the label? Are there any benefits from free downloads to the artist/label, or are the only benefits to the "consumer"?

[auxioluck]

It hurts the label, bands make most of their money on tours. I think it's a paradox personally, the more you download, the less money the label dickheads are getting, BUT, the higher the price of CD's. So....I choose iTunes. I will still pay for good music.

[Metal Ken]

You probably wont find much support for your argument. Personally, i'm for it. i'm fiercely loyal to my favorite bands, however, i do download albums. If i like them, i buy them as soon as i can to show support, and to of course have the band sign when they come by locally. If not, i delete that shit and forget about it. Simple as that.

[Ishan]

I download literally tones of albums as it makes me discover bands I would have never heard of if not. I've never bought more CDs since I started downloading. I'm against iTunes and other DRM crap flooding the internet, you pay too much for a lower quality product (ie : loosy format, DRM, no packaging).

[Uber Mega]

90% of the bands I pay to see live today I would not have heard if it wasn't for downloading music.

[forelander]

Originally Posted by Ishan

I download literally tones of albums as it makes me discover bands I would have never heard of if not. I've never bought more CDs since I started downloading. I'm against iTunes and other DRM crap flooding the internet, you pay too much for a lower quality product (ie : loosy format, DRM, no packaging).

You should like Trent Reznor then - he sold his last album for 5 bucks online in whatever quality you wanted, 10 bucks for the physical CD, and released another album recently, where you can get whatever quality you want for free. Doesn't help if you don't like the music, but he's breaking ground in terms of the things you brought up.

[Desecrated]

Do what the record company does, throw some ridiculous facts in there like; illegal gangs that sell copyright material also sells drugs and children pornography.
You can't reason with unreasonable people

[amonb]

Originally Posted by Metal Ken

You probably wont find much support for your argument. Personally, i'm for it. i'm fiercely loyal to my favorite bands, however, i do download albums. If i like them, i buy them as soon as i can to show support, and to of course have the band sign when they come by locally. If not, i delete that shit and forget about it. Simple as that.

I use downloading as a sample tool. If the album really rocks, I go buy it. If I only like a couple of songs (usually not released as "singles" in the metal world, especially in this country) I keep them and delete the rest.

Prior to me downloading I lived on CDNow (before Amazon bought them) because unless I hunted far and wide OR paid a local store a fortune to get something specifically imported, it was really hard to find the music I wanted to hear locally. And sometimes I was importing blind, without having heard a song but going off word-of-mouth or reviews. This meant every now and again I would get REALLY stung. That is now over.

The funny thing is that the record labels whine about losing money, but in my and Metal Ken's case they are not losing a cent. We are just being informed consumers

[budda]

i use band sites as a sample tool, personally. i download tracks off myspace pages.. bout it.

i generally buy CD's. word of mouth gets me some new tunes, and seeing who influences who gets me new tunes

as well as ridicoulous amount of adds from bands on myspace hehe

[TemjinStrife]

The main issue is that it's causing the RIAA to go all crazy in its death throes and sue mothers and children for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It's also making it harder for labels to sign and promote new acts since they get even less return on successful albums.

That said, I think the recording industry as it is/was is a useless out-of-date dinosaur whose days are numbered following Napster. The awful part about it is that they are trying to take many others down with them.