Crippling Self-Importance

caseylalonde:

standingindogshit-fuck:

Pretty much…

I know there are artists out there who make their living by making and selling music god sake…. I am not a fucking idiot… I just dont appreciate paying $20+ for a fucking CD buy a band/artist that make the majority of their money in touring and promotional stuff…

Soooooo maybe its YOU that should perhaps stay quiet before assuming what I download … with MY fucking money…. Like who the shit do you think you are?

Actually, most of us independent musicians make our money not from touring or promotional stuff, but from those albums you’re not paying for. I know you’re not specifically referring to independent artists and the economics between us and someone backed by a major label are very different, but the point remains:

By not paying us for our work that you download, you’re essentially taking us for granted, and in this specific case throwing it at pirates that had nothing at all to do with making the music, who’ll continue to rip off other musicians.

“Who the shit do you think you are?”

Adding in my two cents because this keeps popping up

People seriously undervalue the time, effort, and skill it takes to make good music. I’ve had arguments with people who refuse to pirate games because it requires work, and then be completely fine with pirating music. Usually they use Bono as an example, saying that he doesn’t need any more money. Except the overwhelming majority of musicians aren’t in that position.

People seem to think that musicians recording with labels won’t be hurt by piracy. Except that if their album doesn’t break even, they owe the label the difference. And recording and distributing an album is not cheap. Touring even more so. There are a lot of people involved in production process who are owed a paycheck beyond just the band and label execs.

And as for independent musicians, you can usually download their music DIRECTLY FROM THEM. Go have a sniff around Bandcamp, there’s tons of great stuff on there. The money you pay for the music then goes directly to them, and they can charge less than the cost for a physical album, or allow customers to place their own value on the work.

Would you go into a restaurant and tell a chef you ‘don’t appreciate’ paying $20 for their food? No, because it’s rude as hell and completely devalues the work that went into your food. The same, I think, goes for music and all other forms of media. If you can afford it, you pay for it so that they can continue making the things you like.

(Source: absinthe-the-green-fairy)