Should music sharing programs be legal?, Give me your opinion. Options

[Jen]

I am writing a paper for my music history class, and I just wanted the opinions of my fellow 6gc'ers.

What do you think about music sharing programs, such as Napster, Limewire, etc.? Do you think they should be legal (as in completely free)? And why?

Please, only educated replies.

I believe that they shouldn't be legal, because artists and bands work very hard to produce songs, and I don't think it's fair for the public to download an entire album for free. I do believe though, that if certain artists want to allow the public to hear their music free, they can. But artists that do not want their music to be free, should be blocked from the public.

What do ya'll think?

[BloodyStupidDave...]

I am writing a paper for my music history class, and I just wanted the opinions of my fellow 6gc'ers.

What do you think about music sharing programs, such as Napster, Limewire, etc.? Do you think they should be legal (as in completely free)? And why?

Please, only educated replies.

I believe that they shouldn't be legal, because artists and bands work very hard to produce songs, and I don't think it's fair for the public to download an entire album for free. I do believe though, that if certain artists want to allow the public to hear their music free, they can. But artists that do not want their music to be free, should be blocked from the public.

What do ya'll think?

They (the programs) should be legal. It isn't the program that breaks the law, it is the people that use it (when they use it in a particular way). It is akin to asking whether radio broadcasts should be legal or not. Most broadcasters operate legally but a few do not.

It is worth pointing out that digital music distribution, including music file sharing programs, are very important to up-coming bands and niche bands - these services provide a very effective and inexpensive way to get their music heard by their fans and increase their penetration of the market. There are also a few big-name bands that are embracing digital music distribution to increase their fan-base, pre-release their music, release a special mix not available on other media, market a new album and so on.

Less well-known bands often cite that they get more money by cutting out the middle-man: operating their own record label and using digital distribution than they would by using one of the large record companies. Interestingly although there is little hard evidence, it would appear that bands that sell their music direct to the consumer from their own website or from iTunes actually experience less piracy that bands that only distribute their music via CDs.

As many music sharing programs are actually file-sharing programs, as there are many legitimate uses for sharing files, as music files are just like other files - a stream of binary numbers and as any sequence of numbers can be infinitely transformed into almost any other sequence of numbers by applying a mathematical function to them, it would likely to be rather hard to enforce in practice. Any such law might cause legitimate music sites such as iTunes to close (depending on just how the law was worded).

My personal view is that most music is vastly overpriced with very little of what I pay going to the artists. I also feel that the music choice available from the large record companies is poor, with much of it poor quality by maunfactured bands with little talent. The Internet is changing many industries (look at how blogs have changed the press industry for instance*). I see more good than bad in the way the record industry is changing - being forced to change. I relish the new music now available to me and the ease with which I can discover new bands. I'll continue to pay for music I perceive has value but refuse to continue to be ripped off by the large companies operating like a cartel in the industry.

This post has been edited by BloodyStupidDavey: Mar 29, 2007 - 6:12 PM

[BloodyStupidDave...]

(look at how blogs have changed the press industry for instance*)

* I heard a great story recently. A journalist was commenting on the way his industry had changed and remarked how one notable CEO recently wrote a blog piece challenging how the press cover end-of-year financial results from large IT companies. Apparently the CEO had a higher readership and recieved 10x the number of comments on that piece that the journalist received for his main article of the week in a prestigious Sunday paper