Speaking as a musician with a small body of work, I want people to download my songs, pirated or otherwise.
If you want to give me money, send me some or come to one of my shows. I was involved with a label/mngt. company in the 90's and they just ripped me off. Don't give them any money by buying "official" records.
Kill Hollywood: Pirate...download and direct your dollars directly to the musicians. Ignore the agents and the middlemen. They're parasites.
How about letting each artist decide his/her own policy on if they want you to download their music for free or not? I see artists signed to major labels tweeting that they want you to buy their music. It isn't black or white.
But you're not understanding - the artist can't decide because piracy is unpreventable. It's over, just stop with them moral battle. The floodgates are open, and it will never close unless we all agree to compromise the internet. So it's either adapt or get a real job.
I'm not saying at all that the industry shouldn't make it easier to acquire works digitally at a decent price, but it still doesn't make it any moral issue, or inherently an 'art wants to be free' issue just because in the last 20 years you've been able to easily copy entertainment without fear of repercussion. People still deserve to be paid for their time and hard work, plain and simple.
Note the followup post will be: 'Just go to their concerts! All is well!'. Since Ticketmaster screws me out of about 30 bucks for each pair of tickets I buy, should we be trying to sneak into concerts for free because 'the man' is doing things we don't like even though the artist is receiving some of the profits from a legal sale?
If you want to give me money, send me some or come to one of my shows. I was involved with a label/mngt. company in the 90's and they just ripped me off. Don't give them any money by buying "official" records.
Kill Hollywood: Pirate...download and direct your dollars directly to the musicians. Ignore the agents and the middlemen. They're parasites.