Before I type anything else, I am posting this to spark some interesting discussion, not a forum war or any other nastiness.
QUOTE
Former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher told Shortlist.com in an interview that music pirates don't bother him. After all, he copied music throughout most of his youth, taping songs off the radio or duplicating music tapes provided by friends. Although downloading music from the Internet isn't exactly the same as waiting for your favorite song to appear on the radio and hit "record," Gallagher doesn't see the difference.
"I don’t mind it," he said referring to music piracy. "I hate all these big, silly rock stars who moan--at least they’re downloading your music and paying attention, know what I mean? You should appreciate that--what are you moaning about? You’ve got five big houses, so shut up."
Gallagher's words were a bit more colorful than the edited quote we provided here, however he makes a valid point: pirated music could extend the fanbase at no extra cost to the musician and the publisher. An illegally downloaded album could lead to an eventual purchase, followed by subsequent purchases of previous albums and related merchandise.
According to TorrentFreak, Gallagher's brother and former Oasis guitarist member Noel Gallagher has also expressed similar views on music piracy in the past. "If people are willing to have faceless CDs like that in their collection, good for them," he said. "It would be absolutely ludicrous for a rock-star to demand that people pay money for albums because the kids haven’t got that much money to pay for an album, so if they can find it for free, go ahead!"
Source:
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Oasis-Misic-Pi...,news-6476.htmlI thought it was interesting to see someone famous who is in similar shoes of those who are against pirated music speak up and look at the other side of this coin.
Personally, I am a bit torn. I see this argument both ways.
I will say for now is that my personal music taste would not be the same if it was not for piracy. I would not know, listen to, or support much of the music I do today.
I also found it interesting when I read about Gallagher himself pirating music the old fashioned way by recording songs off of the radio
Obviously the scale is different now, but isn't the principle the same?
I do wonder how much artists are affected by this. I don't have any sourcing for this, but I recall reading somewhere that artists often make the most of their money from concerts and merchandise. Is it possible and/or true that most of the money we spend on CDs goes to various people and companies who are not the artist? The people producing it, marketing it, and working the CD stores?
I will admit that if CDs we're not $20-30CDN I might be interested in buying more of them. I don't know if this comparison is valid, but I could buy a DVD for that, and they cost a significant amount more to produce!
Anyone else have something to add to this?