I download my music. Illegally. Why? Because I am all for the illegal download industry. Songs should be available on the internet, and people should not be forced to pay for them.
Well, that might have sounded a little blunt, but I also have the arguments to back this up.
Music is about the expression of an emotion, making a statement, giving an opinion on something, etc. The prime objective of any artist should be to do these things, and reach as many people as they can with this, because you want people to feel the way you do, you want people to think about things. Even if people do not agree with your viewpoints as an artist, still you made them at least think a little more about the subject, and that what it is about.
Up and until a few decades ago, the only way to reach a lot of people, was through extensive advertising of your product, and selling it in as many countries as possible. This has changed. Music is no longer only available via the selling of cd's, but also for free, and to a lot more people then you could reach before the coming of the internet. In that aspect, you would think that any artist would embrace the downloading of their music with open arms. In what other way could you bring your message to so many people, could you bring over your feeling to this magnitude of humans?
All the things that music is about, are being strengthened by the illegal download of music, people from all over the world can listen to your music with one click of the mouse. I'd say that that is a dream come true.
Yet many artists are against the illegal downloading of music. The prime argument they make, is indeed not about them not being able to transfer a message or a feeling, or whatever. It is about the money.
This insinuates that the artists do not care one bit about their music, and only care about making as much money as they possibly can through the music.
I myself have a little solo project as well, and I am trying, through that solo project, to wake up those artists, and show them that if they really care about the music, and if they really care about the essentials of music, they would embrace the downloading of music with open arms. My solo project is called "Our Heliophobic Sun", my songs are on myspace (/ourheliophobicsun). You can not buy my albums, the only way to possess my music, is by asking me for the mp3's (acdeicide@live.nl). I do not accept payment in any form, I want to let people know once more what music is actually about, what it should stand for, and the reasons why one makes music, or, at least, should make music. Not for the money, not to make as much people as possible like you, but to bring over a feeling, a message, whatever.
- Theo Therion
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