Music Mania Downloads

I feel that downloading anything you want generally should be acceptable. Most of the media I own was obtained through illegal downloading. Whether it's movies, songs, or software, you can be sure that I've downloaded it by violating some law. Even an artist's entire catalogue can be downloaded with a simple click. Although this may seem unfair to the artist or publisher, I believe that we have the right to do so. If we can easily go to the library and photocopy pages from a book, what makes downloading files so bad? After all, those movies and music were INTENDED for the fans to view/listen. Some artists are even promoting trading files amongst fellow fans. Radiohead recently released an album online, but instead of listing the price, they wanted the BUYER to decide how much they would pay. It seems ludicrous, but it's 100% real. Whether it's a few pennies or a few hundred bucks, you could obtain your copy of the album at any price. It seemed as though they were mocking the music industry and how they are making such a big deal out of illegal downloading. If Radiohead could release a whole album for the fraction of the price of a SINGLE song on iTunes ($.99), then why is it that the music industry cannot handle the other mp3s downloaded off the internet? Every time I hear a report on how the music industry is suffering from the negative effects of illegal downloading, it seems like a pity story trying to make people such as myself stop downloading. They put us to shame and make us seem like the bad guys. The music industry also carries some of that blame. If they feel ripped off by the way we take advantage of our resources, how do they think we, the fans, feel when we decide to go see our favourite band at a concert, only to find out that tickets are selling for $120+ EACH! I don't know about you, but $120 for 80 minutes of entertainment seems ridiculous to me. No wonder we are so hesitant to shell out the money for all of those songs and albums; we're bankrupt from all the cash we spent on concert tickets! Even the merchandise at the concerts is overpriced. With all of these marketing scams, it seems only fair that we should be able to download the music for free.

As for downloading software, I feel that we often have no other choice but to opt for illegal downloading. Very few of us have jobs and cannot afford the hundreds of dollars for software such as Photoshop/Illustrator for graphic design or FL Studio or Cubase for music recording/editing. I think that anyone complaining about the amount of money being lost due to illegal downloading should have seen this coming. Honestly, they are making customers pay way too much money for products. I'm sure we've all seen an interview of some humbling artist claiming "it's all about the music...it's all about the fans...!" Well, if it really is all about the music and fans, then there is nothing to worry about. The fans seem pretty content with the new downloading trend. It's a win-win for us and the music biz.