Is it Cool to Fileshare Music?
Posted on 20. Jul, 2010 by Hector Aviles in Blog
You go to your favorite music store or simply go online and buy a new music album (not sure I can call it a CD if its downloaded from the web). You listen to it and you love it. Then you’re having a conversation with a friend and you mention this great music you just bought. “You should listen to this” you say excited as you start playing the music for your friend in your Home Theater or boom box connected to your mp3 player. Your friend loves it and you offer to share the files with him.
Zune and keyboard
Is this wrong? Is the artist getting ripped-off? Why would you not ask your friend, “Do you like it? Then go buy it.” This reminds me the Mexican children TV show “El Chavo del 8″ when” Kiko” is savoring an ice cream cone, and the poor and homeless “El Chavo” is standing there just stares at him licking. “Kiko” notices “El Chavo” staring at him and asks, “do you want some”? El Chavo gets all excited nodding in agreement, only to hear from Kiko…”…then buy some”. You might feel like you’re just teasing your friend if you don’t offer to share some. Your friend may respond in kind (that’s how we’ve been trained in our society) by sharing with you some mp3 files of an album or artist you haven’t heard but may like.
And there you have it. Both, you and your friend now enjoy music you didn’t have before. But where does this leave the artists that produced that music?
This is the essence of a discussion debated on the Latin Jazz Yahoo Group forum. I’ll continue with the moral and financial aspects of mp3 music sharing in my next blog.
I would love to read your comments on this topic! You can write your comments in the section below.
No related posts.
Name
21. Jul, 2010
Nice reference to El Cahvo del 8 !
But the comparison doesn’t work here… If I take your car, you have no car left. If I copy your mp3, you still have the mp3.
I just can’t understand how the industry is still trying to sell something that has no value : the value of a mp3 file is the banchwith you need to download it on one side, and the server costs on the other side….
We will come one day or the other to an offer where you will buy a service (access to a catalog well organized for exemple)… And we have to think about how the artist will be paid for his contribution…
So sharing mp3 is cool for me, there are no robbery here, since nothing is stolen….
Hector Aviles
21. Jul, 2010
I agree my friend (whoever you are since there is on name).
In the physical world, when you share you give up what you have to lend it or share it with someone else. If I lend you my CD so you can listen to it, then I can’t listen to the CD while you have it.
In the digital world, sharing is just passing you a copy of the files I have, and we can both enjoy it.
Yet artists can still share their music (even for free) and still find ways to use that to make a profit.
I’ll get into that in the 2nd part of this blog.
Rpinero
19. Aug, 2010
You’re comparing apples to oranges…back in the olden days, one bought al LP (that’s what they were called back then). If it was a particularly excellent LP, one would copy it to a cassette tape (remember those?) and play it wherever a cassette player was available…car , friends’ house or just on the stoop while hanging with ones’ friends.
Where was the conundrum then?…you bought it it’s yours to do with what you please.
If someone asked you to make them a copy you did not answer “go buy one”…your friend bought the blank cassette and you shared your music with them.
Your example of “El Chavo” is the height of hubris, one has an ice cream, the other cannot afford one, what lesson is being transmitted through that exchange.
I have been fortunate enough to have friends and associates point me in many different directions when they have shared their music with me. it allowed me to expand my appreciation of music in directions far and wide.
I pay for most of my music and some are gifts, I will continue to share whenever i can.