Why do we steal music?Music 

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The reason people steal music (Score:5, Insightful)
by A Proud American (657806) on 10:17 AM -- Monday May 19 2003 (#5991525)

(in my opinion, that is)

I honestly feel that the decline of music quality and the tiredness of the rock genre after nearly 50 years of three-chord songs has helped to contribute to the alarming rate at which people steal music from online sources.

Who in their right mind would pay eighteen dollars for a CD that probably contains only one or two good songs?

I'm not saying stealing is the right thing to do, and I certainly wouldn't teach my children how to steal music online, but I kind of feel like the music industry "had it coming", so to speak.
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source

I find this interesting and true. I will purchase a CD worth purchasing, no doubt, but the majority of the music being produced is utter shat. My two favorite FM station are both 'classic rock', and I only catch a very few songs that I enjoy on the new music stations.

Now don't go quoting any iTunes music store BS to me either. I'm not paying a buck for an mp3 that isn't even full audio quality. I'd either buy a CD single or download it. And a full album of good music, Joshua Tree?, is worth whatever they're asking at Best Buy or other local music shop.

Does anyone else have an opinion?
 
Then don't post.

I disagree. But then, I tend not to like bands that only have one listenable song. I'm slow to buy CDs, at least of bands I don't know. If I enjoy a song and still want to hear it after it falls off the radio, then I buy the CD to find out what the rest of it sounds like. Usually I'm not disappointed. Occasionally, yes, but not most times. I do tend to listen to new-ish music but neither Top 40 nor playlist-style Classic Rock.

Although I did steal music in the form of taping things in my younger days, I quit doing that because I really figured out it was unethical. I did still tape albums from friends, but only as a "tryout", and if I didn't like it I would record something else over it; otherwise, I'd buy the album myself.

Crap commercial music has been made since the dawn of recording, and I don't buy the "most music sucks so it should be free" agument at all.
 
The reason why I steal music is because most of the music i take is either hard or impossible to find in the UK. I also don't live real close to any stores to buy them from anyway, and its much easier to take them this way. Also i hate buying singles and I ain't gonna waste my money by buying an album with 2 or 3 songs I like on it.
 
Well, maybe I'm just lucky then. If I only like 2 or 3 songs by a certain artist or on a certain album, I usually don't like them enough to care if I never hear them again.
 
Well, I don't have much money and like Neon I take time to buy CD's. Don't get me wrong though, if I hear of a band that is recomened to me (at GTP or otherwise) I will download a few tracks and see if I like it. If I like it, I will eventually get around to buying the artists CD and the mp3's get deleted. If I don't like it, it gets deleted. The only problem is some songs take time to grow on me.

Another reason is because some music is almost entirely impossible to get. Try looking for a Japanese VGM soundtrack in London, I highly doubt you would be able to find one.
 
I rarely buy CD's. That is for the most part a money-issue. I refuse to pay 22 euro for a CD or 4 euro for a single. That has nothing to do with mp3's and such, because before all this download madness i refused to buy CD's for the same reason.

I have a few bands on my list, like Coldplay and my favorite dutch group. I buy every album that comes out of them, no matter how much the CD costs. Because i know 100% sure that i will like every song on that album.

I just can't afford to buy a album without knowing how it will be. And therefor i download songs.
 
Don't get me wrong I do buy CDs normally if I have over 3 mp3s of a certain band I will probably go out and buy the CD. I suppose you could say I use the mp3s as a sample. But most of the time if I hear a song I like on MTV or something I'll just download it.
 
*Agrees with everyone.

I buy CD's if I want certain songs/albums in a somewhat decent sound quality, because, let's face it: mp3's burned to CD can sound horrible! I also buy the annual Ibiza edition of Ministry of Sound along with most Mix Mania, Club Delicious, Solid Sounds and Club System editions. And since those CD's have the tracks mixed together I download the complete versions of those particular tracks and whatever other cool songs I can find.
 
"most music sucks so it should be free"
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I'm not saying that at all, and I don't think the fellow from slashdot is either. I think the intent of his post was to say that modern music isn't worth buying.
 
OK, so I left out "new" or "modern". I still don't think it applies. If you don't like it that much, don't listen to it. If you do, buy it. That's not a tough choice, and it is the only ethical choice.
 
I can honestly say that i have never "stolen" a song ever
In the collection of CD's I have only 5 are "burnt" (collection now numbers over 300) and all of the tracks on those albums are songs that I own
Personally I dont belive in that sort of thing in any case, as with the PS2 and PSX i never had (or will) had my machine chipped so that i could play "ripped" games and the same thing applies to my music
As neon_duke said above if you like it , buy it, if not, then dont, simple as that
 
I relish entire albums, not singles. Around 5 years ago, I've become slow to respond to new music. I had about 400 CDs (none were CD-Rs at the time), and wasn't really in much of a mood to spend $14-18 on an album I might not listen to in a year or two.

I'm much more likely to trade albums with my friends and my family, we've all got extensive enough collectons to keep me entertained for years to come. If I enjoy something I never would have thought of before, then yes, I'll burn a copy after I listen to it and enjoyed it. Otherwise, I send it back, so to speak. I don't steal music for the sake of stealing crappy music. Let them fail the old fashionned way.

But if something does catch my attention, like say, Radiohead did, then I go out and buy the latest release after listening to it. And artists I've enjoyed both past and present are sure to get my currency in exchange for listening pleasure. Artists that entertain ought to be rewarded, don't you think? If you like something, and dearly want it to continue on, then by all means, you have to support it if you like it.

I also burn what is (nearly) impossible or hideously expensive to buy, rare remixes, live stuff, out-of-print music that you can't find elsewhere. What about that? Is it fair to wait 10 years for more responses to tell a small label to make another 5000 copies of such-and-such album?

While I think music should be shared, I don't appreicate the varying recording qualities, volume levels, truncated songs, incorrect titles, etc. It was good for hearing new, rare, or different music in my opinion, but it's archival quality is quite unappealing. Not to mention, quite a bugaboo at 56k! The net has brought us something better than file sharing; opinion sharing! Hear what other think about that music or that album you're about to buy...that is what's remarkable.
 
I download music mainly because I dont have that much money. I download the songs to "hold me over" til I can get a hold of the cd somehow.
 
we steal music because we can, because we have the internet, because we dont have money.
 
I steal music because I'm a cheap, cheap, bastard.

I have no desire to go out and pay $17+ for a $.02 chunk of plastic that only contains 2-3 decent songs. I would much rather sit at home, and steal those 2-3 good songs. Yep. I'm a thief!
 
Originally posted by Brian P
The reason why I steal music is because most of the music i take is either hard or impossible to find in the UK. I also don't live real close to any stores to buy them from anyway, and its much easier to take them this way. Also i hate buying singles and I ain't gonna waste my money by buying an album with 2 or 3 songs I like on it.
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Hehe, the only MP3's I download are samples or Muse mp3's, because it's a rarity to find any Muse CD's in the States, but I did buy Showbiz for my brother for Christmas this past year. But otherwise, MP3's just sound too bad.
 
we steal music because we can. and it's much easier and makes more sense than buying cds. what's the point of paying 40 bucks for the cd if you only need the cd so you can rip the songs to your hard drive and put them on your mp3 player when you could get them for free and put them on your mp3 player.
 
Originally posted by Brian P
The reason why I steal music is because most of the music i take is either hard or impossible to find in the UK.
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this is very true, i love eurodance which is even hard to find in europe sometimes and i stand no chance of buying the songs in the uk. however the internet is still young enough for most of us to remember times when we didnt have access to it right? back in them days if i loved a song i heard (99 times out of 100 on the radio) then i'd diligently sit at my radio waiting to hit the record button so i could record the song. i didn't BUY songs then because i didn't have the money. the internet came along and opened my eyes to how much music there is around the world, it expanded my tastes and now i love music as much as anything else, i have since bought in excess of £300-£400 ($500-$600) worth of songs which i NEVER would have bought before since i couldn't afford songs i really liked let alone ones i hadn't heard (in the case of album buying).

if you remove internet file sharing people wont suddenly go out and buy music, they just wont listen to as much. i believe if anything internet file sharing has INCREASED cd sales, the only reason why there has been a decline is because it was scheduled anyway. current bands are a joke, in all genres, everyone wants to be a super star, virtually no one writes their own music, and the only good songs are remakes of classics. if they want to increase cd sales they have to start making better music.

as for me, i have hundreds of songs in my mp3 list, i have a large number of them on cds and records, and every month i go down to hmv or browse internet shops to try and find the ones i don't so i can buy them but they are near impossible to get so eventually i will give up and the artists who deserve money wont receive it. such is the state of affairs.
 
People steal music because they can. Just like people pirate software. It is much easier for somebody to just jump on the net and download a song or two. And as the internet gets faster, the faster the rates of music and software piracy will rise. The artists and record companies have themselves to blaim too. Artists are getting lazier and lazier in terms on CD content. Sometimes I buy a CD and there are only 12 or less songs on it. Who wants to pay $30 for a CD with only 12 songs. That brings me to my next point, $30 is too expensive for some people to afford. Artists are just getting greedier and greedier and not thinking about those who are tight with money.

I don't download whole albums. If I hear a good song I'll download it. I might download one or two other songs from the same artist as well and if I like - chances are I'll buy the CD. I'd rather buy a CD then download some MP3s and burn them to a disk. Sure, it's cheaper - but a CD just isn't complete without the proper label and case.

Well, that's my 2cents worth.
 
I don't believe in stealing music, but would downloading one or two songs actually be classified as stealing music? As Brian P does, I seem to use the downloads as a sample. I hear a good song, then want to listen to it a little more, so I download it. Most of the time I will download another song just to be sure I like it. If I do, 9/10 times I will get the CD. Artists should get what they deserve. Music is the only thing in this world for some people. If artists aren't getting money, maybe 10 years from now there won't be that many musicians. I mean, I know they love to make music, I'm a musician myself and I lvoe to record and make new tunes. But even so, if there is no profit in it at all, no matter how much the artists like music, the wanting to make music may deacrease by A LOT!
Rule: Limit myself to 3 songs max by one band.
 
It's not really the ARTIST's fault that the CD prices are so high. It's the corporations that own the artists that set ticket and CD prices so high. Plus, how many people out there that the industry calls "artists" do you consider an "artist"? I personally don't think too many are. Sure, Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Led Zeppelin, The Beetles, Radiohead, Metallica, and the like are all artists, but honestly, does anyone here think Frankie J is an artist? Frankly, I've never heard of him!
 
Originally posted by powerslide4Engl
Can someone tell me a good site to 'steal' stuff like new metal etc quickly.
I am cheap, sad, and can't afford CDs.
THX
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you shouldn't listen to new metal... listen to trance instead ;P
 
Man, I wish I had my license... Then I would have Radiohead's new album.

But noooo, parents are too lazy to take me to the exam station!
 
lol@you people buying cds

I usually just download entire albums and if I like it, I will go out and buy it to support the artist. but a lot of artists out right now don't deserve my $15
 

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