On the Expansion of Music Piracy

I am very curious as to hear what any of you think about the current state of music piracy, whether or not you support it, and why.

I have been fascinated with this topic for the last three or four years, and it is always interesting to read about the opinions of others.

I have my own, but I am waiting to hear your thoughts first.

Keep in mind that this topic is not one for promoting piracy, and as such one should not post links to any sites that may (or may not) go to in order to commit said act. This is simply a topic to both inform and discuss freely one's view on said topic in an orderly and open-minded fashion.

I honestly don't mind it because I'd like to listen to music on the go, but I'm not able to afford all the CD's of artists that I like. Plus a lot of bands and musicians nowadays don't mind if you pirate their music because they just like the fans to enjoy their music.

Yes, a lot of bands do support pirating because they care about the music and not the profits (such as Radiohead, one of the few major-label bands that openly encourage fans to pirate their music), however, lesser known indie bands that are signed to such labels (like Sony, EMI, etc) may encourage their fans to both pirate, while at the same time, purchase their records. This is a sort of joint effort being promoted by such bands in order to create more fans and more financial stability, that would allow them to have both the moral and economical support of people that enjoy their music so that they may go on to record more albums. I support this act more so than straight up pirating because I feel that if a band entertains me and has done their part to contribute to my interest in music, the least I can do is support them as best as I can being a poor college student.

For example, if we were to breakdown this process, let's say I am online one day and I hear about this band called Shearwater (an indie American band currently signed to a popular indie label, Sub-pop). I look them up on Youtube and listen to a couple of their songs and I really dig them, so I search for their album on some random torrent site. I manage to find it, so I download it. Listening to the rest of the album, I heavily enjoy it and plan on, in the future, to buy their albums instead of torrenting them. In the meantime I take to spreading the word about this band to my other fans in hopes that I may create some theoretical revenue by establishing new fans for the band. I hear they are going to be playing in my town, so I pay $20 for the ticket, and while they are playing the tunes, I decide to go to the merch table and buy a t-shirt (another $20) in order to advertise the band, and I discover their new album for sale for $15, so I buy that as well, knowing that I am more than likely going to like the material they are producing. I have just given the band $55 toward recording a new album or at least to keep them going a little bit longer (I have no idea how much of this the band would actually see, but I imagine it is a lot better than the money they would see if they were signed to Sony). This may not seem like much, but it is still the best I can do to support this band.

Plus, this band (like thousands of others) would not have been known to me had I not taken to the internet and torrented one of their albums, mainly because the kind of music they are producing would never find its way on mainstream radio, being that their sound is drastically different than the familiar sounds of generic pop songs. Basically, they must rely on developing themselves further as an artist to keep fans listening, which is a concern unknown to the pop stars of today because they all sound the same and thus do not have to change their recording techniques or be innovative, and as such are being promoted by their labels heavily by using the fear of change to establish a below-average standard for music that should be played on the radio.

tl;dr: Through pirating I have come to appreciate the work of many bands, which has led me to appreciate indie artists as a whole, and has also inspired me to support these small time artists in order to keep them alive, something major-label bands wouldn't have made me consider, being that their music is constantly being shoved down my throat whenever I turn on the radio.

Also, if anyone was curious, here is a track from the aforementioned band: