First of all, writing and recording music is a very long and painful process, and you really put yourself into the music you are making. It's every serious musicians dream to be able to make a living off of their music, and when you steal it, you are essentially denying them that dream. Just think about what it would be like if spent days and days working on something, only to discover that someone else was giving away your hard work for free.
But on the other hand, some bands choose to give away their music for free. I can't think of any specific bands right now, but I do remember hearing that a well known band was going to be having their newest album available to download for free. This brings up another point in the argument.
Music is by far the highest paying of the fine arts. Everyone can name at least one famous modern musician who is filthy rich, but I'm willing to bet that the amount of famous painters, or dancers who we can easily name that are filthy rich is a lot less.
The other fact you have to consider is that a good percentage of the money that you would be spending on music is going to be going to a record label. A lot of people justify downloading free music by saying stuff like "the artist isn't going to be getting most of my money, so why should I give it to some greedy record label?" For a good portion of musicians, that is the case, but you have to factor in the smaller record labels that are more about music, and the fact that some musicians operate without a record label. In those cases, it is more like stealing from the artist than it is when there is a large corporation involved.
The other problem that I have is that I love music, and I am always looking for more, but I don't have the kind of money it takes to fully satisfy my appetite when it comes to music. Here are some of the solutions that I have for getting my fix.
The first is borrowing a CD from a friend. This way, the ratio of how many people that have downloaded an album is less than it would be if I got it online. This works a lot of the time, and I also get exposed to music that I wouldn't be listening to otherwise.
The Second is iTunes. Buying an album on iTunes does cost money, but it is a lot less than it would be buying an actual CD. Often a CD that would cost $20 at a retail store, will cost only $10 on iTunes, and then you can burn it onto a CD for use. This way is a lot cheaper, and I don't necessarily have to buy a full album to get one song.
Another option is the various online radio stations and playlist builders like Pandora.com or playlist.com. I like these because I am not actually downloading the music, but I can listen to it all I want.
My last resort is the library. When I need a fix of music, and I am short on cash, I will go to the library and grab anything that looks even moderately interesting. This has yielded some good results for me, introducing me to a lot of bands that I wouldn't normally listen to. The catch is that I always feel dirty after doing it, more like I stole something. But, like I said, this is my last resort.
I am however, proud to say that I have never downloaded any music online for free, and I don't ever plan on it. If you are someone who does illegally download music, I really think that you should at least consider stopping. That's all I have to say about that topic for now, but I really would like to hear what you think on the topic, so feel free to comment, whether it's positive or negative.
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While I have your attention, I would like to say that you need to tip the people that serve you food. That includes bus boys and deliverers. Their wage is calculated INCLUDING tips, so in other words, part of our pay is from the people we serve. We count on that part of our pay, so it really helps if you do tip. It doesn't even have to be that much, something is better than nothing. You'd be surprised at how many people don't tip, and it's always the rich people...
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