Piracy and music... ?? O.o
 

I was just thinking about something.

MAny people on the internet are downloading loads and loadsof music. Now my guess why most people do it, is that it's so easy, cheap and music in general is overprised. We are living in an age where alot of people have acces to the net, and it doesn't take much time before they hear about Emule, Kazzaa and Bittorrent.
Most people don't realize that what they are doing is stealing money from hardworking people who live of making music. This is because it's digital. It's not something you can touch and feel. It's just something you can get with a single click on the mouse.
Now, if music was cheaper, and i mean alot. Probably half the prize it is now, do you think people would buy music more often than just downloading it? Of course you can get cheap music on the net, but oftenly(give alot of information to a company you don't know), also some people either don't know how to pay online or they dont trust the companies that provide cheap music. Lets say if a CD costed only 10 bucks, alot of people would just buy it, because it's cheap and easy to reach in the store. I prefer to buy stuff physically, but I don't have too much money, so buying musoc os probably i do once or twice a year... But if musoc was to be that cheap, I'd probably buy alot more music, also music i'm not so sure I'd like...

So what do you guys think?
Do you download music?
Would you buy more music if it was cheaper?



Have a nice discussion.

EDIT_ just noticed i mispelled 'Piracy' :S

I want to let you all know that I have stolen over 500 songs.

From the Oblivion Soundtrack, Cake, and Black Sabbath, to Johnny Cash, Led Zeppelin, and REM.

I DO however, buy most of the songs after listening to them. (Well, if they have CD's)

No, I never buy CD's.

I steal games, movies and all of the like.

I openly pirate.

I pirate what I want, and if that thing doesn't work, I'll buy it.

I pirate everything but brand new games.

But would you pay for music if it was cheaper?

I would completely.

In fact, I use Itunes a ton. I just wish I could play the songs I BUY on something else (MY 360).

Well, don't you have one of those extension convertors? or whatever you call em?

As a rule of thumb, I always download and only buy when I think it's worth buying. A lot of the crap out there these days isn't worth my money in the first place. I happily download a major game, I have over 10.000 dollars of illegal software on DVD's and stuff (bite me FBI) and huge ammounts of music. But if I think something is worth buying, then I do buy it.

Fact is, games, movies, music, it's all bloody expensive and people have better ways to spend their money. Why pay for something if you can get it for free or at least cheaper? So what it's illegal? No one is going to care. You won't have the police on your doorstep for downloading a few movies, unless your stupid enough to openly admit on a forum that you have over 5000 movies on your computer where everyone with a bit of hacking skill can track it down and bust you for it.

Even if prices went way down, I don't think people would buy a CD sooner then downloading it. I can get the latest album from bitcomet in 10 minutes opposed to the 30 minutes it will take me to pick it up at a store and waste money on it.

Piracy can't be stopped, it's way to big and EVERYONE does it. Not just a selected group of people, EVERYONE! Even the people who claim to fight against it have illegal songs on their computer. Piracy can't be checked, it can't be tracked and if you were to go punnish everyone for downloading a few songs, prisons would overcrowd.

And don't forget that publishers are acting on this as well. They still make millions, so it's not their bussiness complaining about anything here. They only raise prices because they see an opritunity: We can raise prices and pin it on piracy, while we actualy don't make that much of a loss of it but people will believe it anyway.

So there you have it. Oh, and some propeganda from me:

NEVER EVER buy games from EA. ALWAYS, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE!!! DOWNLOAD EA GAMES!

There, I'm done.

lol well ok... but wouldn't you be te,pted to just buy a CD, when you go to the store, if it was alot cheaper? I usually buy all kind of cheap crap :p
But I would definitaly buy more CDs if they were cheap, and i do agree that everything digital is too overprized.

I probibly wouldn't buy..

Guess I'm just a bad person...

I usually just download random songs through Limewire these days. I haven't bought a CD in like... a year. I'd probably buy it more often if it were cheaper, but that wouldn't stop me from downloading it at all.

Usually, I only buy whole CDs if I actually adore the band itself.

I'm too poor to buy all my music, videos and games. Therefore internet piracy is the way! :D.

I'm guilty of internet piracy, I'm afraid. Most commonly useful programs and music.

However, I refuse to download movies, television programs and video games as I have too much respect for these mediums and prefer to buy the DVDs or games themselves. In fact, I'm pretty close to being a self proclaimed DVD collector... I always get sucked in by the 'limited edition' box sets and stuff like that. It's quite pathetic, really.

I generally download a song or two to get the feel for an album, and if it is deemed worthy, it shall be purchased.

Lolgheyfag.

Me too. Except with bands I know are good, where I just read what other people say about them on forums. For example, I downloaded about five Dream Theater songs I liked so I went out and bought two albums.

Cheapers CDs would only affect me buying them in that I would buy more at once. When I make a trip to the city or buy online I do a few at once, but I soon spend all the money I want to spend after say four CDs and one DVD, so that's all until I get more money.

I haven't copied a CD in about 2 years now.
It feels good.

I just wait til they have sales in the shops and you can buy CDs for £3.00 instead of £12.00. ^_^;;

With me it depends, if theres an album with all my favorite songs ill go and buy it, but if theres just a single song i want ill just download it . I tried using kazaa once and my nortorn internet security came up a million times every minute.

I'd rather pirate a song than spend $15 on a CD with only one good song on it.

If I like the whole CD, I'll usually go out and buy it....

....or borrow it from the library and copy it....

I never pirate. I always buy the album. If I am going to enjoy someone's art then I am going to pay them for it.

I only buy albums when I personally want to support the artist

My beliefs as well.

True, but not all music is art ;). In fact, some of it is rather crappy.

I was never into piracy music, but I always pirated games. I stopped it now though, and that's because pirate stuff is becoming obsolete. They're glitchy, sometimes limited to what they can do and you can't go online if it's a game.

But why would we be listening to music if it's crappy?

If it's good enough to listen to, it's good enough to pay for.

It would appear that we aren't on ENTIRELY different pages.

Hmm..

Ever seen that episode of south park aobut music piracy?

Or have you ever seen cribs?

These people make millions, sometimes billions, losing a few dollars isnt going to hurt them.

Instead of bying the lime green lemborghini with pure gold rims, they'll have to settle for faux gold, and hunter green.

So thwy cant afford the pretty personal jet that costs about 60 grand... Go take your ****ing perfect-ass to your goddamn Scion.

Music piracy sisnt as bad as people make it look.

What if it's only one or two songs on the CD that are good and the rest is crap?

Oh yes, because millions of consumers would only amount to a few dollars.

Ugh. I hate my disorder. Not only does it sometimes make me sound like a 5 year old; I also say things which 'I' don't actually think, or believe.

being a musician myself, i think that piracy is very bad. i'd hate for anyone to rob my band of our rightful money, especially because i am poor and I know how important incoming money is. I try not to pirate music at all, but in certain cases I make an exception. if i had more money, i'd definately buy every Cd or record, its disgraceful that people with more money than me get things through piracy rather than paying like a respectable person like me would!

Yea all realize that most of the money goes to the record companies rather then the artists... they only get a small percentage of what is earned. If you want to support an artist directly, pay him the money directly, cuz buying a CD realy won't help :P.

I tend to listen songs first before the album.

Generally I honestly say I cause a great loss in record companies cause I usually download 1 song from the album. Cause I only like that song.

Coming to the question I might buy it if it was cheaper. but tax here is high in uk. Extorsion!!! I mainly aim for the picture of the cd and case cover. Burn at cd wont give that brilliant picture.

I pirate all the time. Its not "fighting the system". Its being a cheap person who doesn't want to wait two weeks for a CD they haven't even heard.
Here is the deal: Many of the Cds I want are not carried physically. I have two options: Order it and wait half a month. Option number Two is a lot better: Buy it for pennies a song if I can't outright download it for free. I got Kazaa and BitTorrent on my computer and if I can't turn up a song using those I buy them from a site like www.allofmp3.com
Money is too tight to blow it on ordering obscure imports at 16 bucks a pop.

Well, I own many CDs like that. I also own many I don't like the songs on much at all, but I buy them because I need to finish collections or whatever.

I have no problem with downloading a couple of songs though. It's whole album piracy which I am against. So if you only want a couple of songs, just get those songs, not all of them for free.

So I can pick and choose my fave songs as long as its not the whole album? I call bull. Stealing is stealing and if you're gonna do it just put the biscuit in the basket and download the whole friggin' album.

... Why would you download songs you don't like...?

How is downloading two songs any different than listening to those songs on the radio?

You can listen to them over and over.

Hahaha I just got an e-mail from an artist rights orginisation for trying to sell illegal DVD's on auction sites. Didn't think they were actualy checking up on it.

...

Anyone want the first season of Prison Break on DVD? :D

No... aaaaalrighty then...

Most of my downloaded mp3s I actually own the album for now, but I have a few random songs and that that I don't ... simply becasue I really don't like the artist enough to go out and buy an entire album. In some cases I only like one of their songs.

I mostly listen to video game music though, and unless you can order online, it is really difficult to purchase.

There's another problem with video game music which also exists for fans of anime music. Anyone who has been to an anime store has probably seen the soundtracks on sale. Well the fact is that the majority of such soundtracks are actually pirated versions from Hong Kong or Korea and not the official Japanese release. In almost all case, the CDs are identical in cover art, etc ... however sound quality is less and also the serial numbers are different. IMO this is even worse than downloading mp3s, because someone is making money off it and not the original artist. And also many fans that don't know this fact are actually purchasing pirated CDs from legitimate stores without even realizing it. When I first started listening to FF music I too purchased pirate CDs without knowing about it. It wasn't until a year or so later I fount out about this practice. Very few stores in Australia and the US actually sell the legitimate CDs also which is a real shame.

As for downloading movies, I don't care for doing that. I was a huge advocate against anti-dowloading for Advent Children and we put up disclaimers on the site saying that we wouldn't support that kind of thing. But aside from that, I hate watching stuff on my computer, and I don't have a DVD burner, so really there is no use for even bothering.

I also wonder why people on eBay are allowed to sell pirated stuff. I guess eBay doesn't care and there must be a legal loophole to allow such. I see pirated CDs and DVDs on there all the time. Not sure about games/software though.

Abe Babe...

I only download to fill gaps and/or explore new stuffs. But I always make an attempt to buy when I can, particularly in the case of indendent artists. Money is so very annoying when you don't have it...

I prefer bought CDs because they look cooler, and you can brag about your collection. But I'm a criminal.

OMG I'm so impressed by your internet braggings, we're all going to think you're so much of a hard gangster type now. You're so fucking cool. :rolleyes: