I want my music to be posted for free download on blogs, I’m not in it for the money.

I just found this when a friend sent me the link…

I have to say that blogs like these help out artists like me enormously… whilst I would make no money as such, what you do get is exposure, and this is worth more to me than a few pounds.

- who is going to buy your music when they don’t know you exist?

So thanks very much for taking the time to write about my music.

Cheers,

Jamie

To quote your article:
“First, it’s not necessarily true that today’s musicians make any less money than those of ten years ago.”

- completley wrong. Bands have always made money from concerts, tshirts, and licencing. They have one less revenue stream (and a substantial one at that) than they used to. They are utilizing the other avenues now because the HAVE to.

Stealing is stealing. And until they change it on paper it’s still the “law”.

If all of a sudden there was an easy way to rob banks it would still be illegal. Just because everyone is doing it doesn’t mean that the laws should or could change.

Do a gut check – how do you really feel about it? If there is just a small tinge of guilt in there – then you’re really just stealing from your own soul – and it makes you that much less of a sympathetic human being.

Go ahead – download. Why buy the milk when there’s a free cow on the internet. You and millions of others can build yourself up into an ugly monster one mp3 at a time.

Thanks for the feedback. While on the subject of what is “stealing” music, I believe there was a recent case here where a woman was fined something around 1.8 million dollars for downloading a couple cds. My numbers might be off, but that’s the gist of the it. I just can’t see how 1.8 million bucks justifies the theft of audio files. The RIAA isn’t just catching these “thieves” and teaching them a lesson, they are seriously fucking up their lives. There is no way a person can pay a 1.8 mill dollar fine in their life time. I can only imagine that a fine of such a large amount would destroy your life in so many ways. If they insist of teaching us a lesson for breaking the “law” I wish they’d come up with a more reasonable punishment. At the very least, one that totaled a realistic dollar amount for the music downloaded.

Thanks for the kind words. I think you’re right about music copyright laws. So many of our laws were written before the Internet became a part of everyday life. As such, they’re terribly outdated.

But changing laws takes time; progress happens before the law reacts. As of now, downloading is technically against the law but that law isn’t enforced. Sure, a few unlucky people get sued by the RIAA. But they’re a drop in the bucket compared to the number of people currently downloading music.

I don’t know what the future of copyright law is going to look like. Even if you argue that stealing music is wrong, what’s the proper way to define “stealing?” Copying an MP3 to a friend’s hard drive isn’t the same as taking a CD from Best Buy without paying for it. The law should reflect that.

In any event, thanks for your loyal readership.