Just want to reiterate what you mentioned…

The sad irony here is that as the radio stations have become more homogenized due to corporate control and greed, true music fans have gone “underground” to get their music by tapping into the P2P networks. If the radio stations played music or AT LEAST had the freedom to play music like they used to (i.e. stream whole albums, play independent music, etc.), I’m sure we’d see a more balanced and reasonable usage of P2P.

Furthermore, had radio remained a reliable source of music, it would be interesting to think how this would have or could have better evolved WITH P2P network technology. In other words, radio stations offering free streams/downloads of the songs in their rotation or select singles, etc.

The amount of control from record companies that has dominated the radio airwaves for the past two decades has not merely encouraged but forced consumers to hit the web and track down what they like.

I also can appreciate the argument you present as music addiction. That’s exactly what it is. Very few of the people I’ve ever known who have downloaded music did it because they were consciously thinking: I could buy this, but I’ll download it instead. Now, I’m sure that happens to an extent, but everybody I know who has ever downloaded did so because they finally found what they were looking for (a band’s brand new song) after weeks of anticipation and hours spent trolling through forums and news sites just for a tracklist or a song title.

So with radio now a complete joke and with MTV totally in the toilet (and hardly Lars’ golden throne, at that) where the hell are true music lovers supposed to go to find their music? And god forbid we actually do want TO BUY and PAY FOR music, where do we go for that? Best Buy? Target? Walmart? Oh ya, because that’s what I want, to search for a piece of art and hope to be inspired when I’ve got soccer moms pushing strollers with whiny kids and bags of gerber or corporate types trying to find a replacement ink cartridge or some geezer trying to figure out which refrigerator to buy.

One last note now that I’ve begun this rant: the last 50-60 years has been interesting because for the first time in history we’ve got mass produced art marketed and sold like a consumer good. Nothing was ever really like that before: you didn’t see big posters and commercials for books. But music (and movies, too) are a sort of strange phenomenon. For example, I believe the most expensive painting the world is Jackson Pollock’s No. 5, 1948 sold by David Geffen for around $150 million. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that Nirvana’s Nevermind (also owned by Geffen) is a piece of art tantamount in its integrity and statement to this painting. Unfortunately, what this means in the mind of a record company executive (see Jimmy Iovine’s post above) is that this album must sell 10 million copies in order to give it the value that the industry imagines that it has. So the pressure is on the artist as well as the art itself to sell, not to create. Pollock was dead for years before his painting was ever “worth” this much… but Cobain ultimately took his life (in part) because of the pressure to be a best-selling commodity.

It’s bizarre what has happened to the idea of the artist. Their role in and responsibility to society has been beaten, gagged, and raped and what’s left is not art at all… but a product that now sits to the left of toys and video games on a shelf.

And it’s not just CDs. Maybe it’s that I am getting older too, but I don’t go to shows (or buy other merch) as much any more either.

Take from that what you will, but I HATE that my love of music has actually been dialed down thanks to the RIAA and their tactics. But I guess I can cling to my current CD collection and enjoy the hell out of it for the near future.

Second, Two Hearts One Blood, “I don’t feel bad about downloading because I’m pretty certain that any band I download is probably doing better than I am financially, and well, for whatever reason I just don’t care. I’m in a band and I value our music and would rather it be paid for.”

Did you actually read what you wrote before posting it?That’s about the stupidest comment on downloading I’ve heard, and highly hypocritical as well. If you don’t care about someone else’s music, why should anyone give a fuck about yours?
Plus, I listened to your “music” and sorry, but trust me, no one is going to want to steal or pay for that shit, so you don’t have to worry.

I used to P2P, but my pc isnt the best so stopped it for a while. But I can think of a few bands that I bought their album from listening to it first. (Mr Bellamy I’m looking at you here for your albums – which i buy then go and see you live for a price as OTT as your music ;-) )

I am from UK and use the Spotify program. When it gets to USA it will take over. Incase you dont know, there are occasional adverts between playbacks, and the library is not as full as you would wish, but you can still find a lot of good songs on it and it has made me want to buy more albums cos i get to listen to it first. But hey, its just like P2P. So are they gonna ban streaming next? Who knows.

In such economic drivel, we need to be more careful with our money. So these sites help us make the right choice.

Remember Lily Allen made her name via myspace so she has some nerve saying anything about free music.

As for the file sharing dead horse, I download. I download the shit out of music. I do it because I can, and because there’s no way I could afford to pay for as much music as I DL. If I had to pay for all music, I guess I would just have way less music. But there are also a ton of bands that would lose out on my concert ticket money, because I wouldn’t even know about them. I don’t ever listen to the horrendous radio, I don’t have cable, and I don’t see any kind of awards shows. I find music through friends and through various blogs and websites.

I don’t feel bad about downloading because I’m pretty certain that any band I download is probably doing better than I am financially, and well, for whatever reason I just don’t care. I’m in a band and I value our music and would rather it be paid for. I also know that we make way more money from playing shows and selling physical CD’s at those shows than we do on an average day of just waiting for people to buy our shit on iTunes or Amazon.