I have to say I am someone who fiercely sticks by artists who I believe have earnt my loyalty and will gladly pay the price to ensure that they are suitably rewarded for the enrichment they have given me over the years.
Take 36 Crazyfists for example - five blue collar guys from Alaska. Christ, we've all seen 30 Days Of Night right? It must suck out there with the cold, the month without sun and the fact that Angel from Home & Away is constantly wrapped up tighter than Tutankhamun's nutsack and that's without the vampires coming and burning down the place or eating your loved ones... The fact that this region has produced one of my favourite bands, possibly ever (well in the last 8 years anyway) makes me doff my furry cap with the fluffy ear flap things.
Taking serious pause for a moment; I would gladly drag myself over hot coals to support them. They are a band I will buy on first day of release, I will go to any show I can in spite of distance, I won't complain (well only to a select few who I know love them like me) about the fact their sets seem to be 40 minutes long and usually consist of their second album's material. I'll buy their shirts, buy the slightly ropey DVD... they had me at 'Hello' (Well, 'Slit Wrist Theory' anyway).
As such I won't bat an eyelid downloading their album a month ahead of schedule because they'll make it back from me even if I have to ask Mummy and Daddy to buy it for me for Christmas... that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
On the other end of the scale there is no doubt file sharing, whilst beneficial to the cheapskates amongst us, has destroyed the record industry as we know it (and this is a good thing in many respects). Eminem's 'Recovery' album (getting all multicultural on your ass) sold a pitiful amount compared to The Slim Shady LP, closer to home Linkin Park's 'A Thousand Sun's' shifted a couple of units (probably to the proud parents of the rhythm section who then spent 50 minutes wondering where their boys were and why they had put on a Pet Shop Boys album) compared to 'Hybrid Theory' which according to Chester Bennington is not quality related but because 'People Get Their Music In Different Ways Now' - yes douchebag, from bands that aren't whiny crapspackle. Elsewhere that anonymous bloke who fronts Nine Inch Nails rip off merchants Filter (the one whose brother is a famous actor) bemoans records sales falling because people just rip things off these days , implying that this decline is no way connected to the fact that they have out lived the short life span of their radio single 'Take A Picture' and now have to work construction to get by... ask Rob Zombie how cruel it is when no one buys your music (newsflash Rob, no one downloaded and kept Educated Horses either).
It's fucking laughable really when credible acts still sell tens of thousands of units, that it's the pretenders who got lucky are the first to run and cry foul... 'Mad' David Draiman is just keeping quiet and laughing his ass off that no one has noticed Disturbed haven't made a good album since 'Believe' but they still ship 'em out by the tanker load.
But I digress... it no doubt impacts and bands like Crazyfists probably suffer the most. Gone are the days when signing a contract meant a ticket to ride the gravy train. The music industry is a harsh mistress and survival now is for the cockroaches in 'genre' music. Having said that file sharing saves me a fortune at the cinema as I absolutely refuse to spend the best part of a tenner on CGI Remake 3... 3D? I think you have to be able to make good movies in 2D first before I'll cough up to go see that. I forecast my next trip will be somewhere around Batman 3 (You'd better deliver Nolan...) but this isn't A Brief History Of Cinema.
The problem with music is quality.
I remember when i was a kid and albums came out every year or every other, were reasonably affordable and had 8 tracks on them. If they were crap you'd get another go the next year...
Take Iron Maiden (just to show faith that no band is immune from criticism) their first seven studio albums are 8 tracks long and hands down, stone cold, classics.
We get to 1990 and 'No Prayer For The Dying' ramps it up to ten tracks and even with my Maiden tinted glasses on there are at least two songs that you don't need to hear on it and that's without the album sounding like it was produced by a half deaf bass player in a barn in his back garden... oh hang on...
Fast forward two years and 'Fear Of The Dark' soared to the heady heights of twelve tracks. Frankly anyone who tells me that 'Weekend Warrior', 'The Apparition', 'Chains Of Misery'' and 'The Fugitive' are good songs needs trepanation.
With a fucking spade.
There was a time when I would rush out and buy an album without hearing it before hand but having been burnt by an ever increasing list - Union Underground, Megadeth's 'Cryptic Writings', Alien Ant Farm's 'Anthology', most of Audioslave's output, Staind's 'Break the Cycle', Pearl Jam's 'No Code', Black Sabbath's 'Technical Ecstacy' are some examples that no band new or old are immune from the odd duffer and I remember taking back a stack of CDs from my DJing time (probably the best part of £100s worth) into the local independent store and making back about a tenner in trade in value, which effectively equated to 3 CDs (1 decent and two shite most likely).
If I didn't download them first I would have (probably) rushed out and bought Linkin Park's 'A Thousand Suns', Them Crooked Vultures, The Damned Things, Bullet For My Valentine and so on... it's con I know, but my disposable cash is a jealously guarded thing these day and frankly some of the shit listed above should have been paying me for listening to it.
The answer?
There is no answer.
In one corner it's immoral, it's illegal, it's stealing... on the flipside Metallica was founded on tape trading. I got into this whole mess of music obsession from a copy, a rough and ready, not as good as the real thing, copy.
As an aside the 'perfect reproduction' argument is also bollocks Lars - A flattened MP3 does not reproduce the same sound as a CD - if you want the real thing, buy it, if not accept a lesser standard. MP3s and 'making radio singles louder' reduces quality.
Don't believe me? Listen to Death Magnetic on MP3 or CD, then listen to the Mobius Remix available from a fan, downloadable for free... I paid money for a shitty sounding album Lars... again and yet when I play Guitar Hero Metallica it sounds better... you appear to be rogering me from behind... again.
I operate music on a try before you buy donation system these days - if I like it/you I might buy the album, I'll go to your show, I'll buy a T-shirt and put the money directly into your pocket.
You wouldn't steal a car/handbag would you?
Probably if I could get away with it... after all as Tool once said
'Consequences dictate
our course of action
and it doesn't matter what's right.
It's only wrong if you get caught.'
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