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Download My Album for Free!

by Kerri Randall

Download my entire album for free! Cool, right? But of course, that would be illegal if the transaction wasn't initiated by the musician(s) that created the album. Don't worry, I'm not going to get preachy. Just sharing some thoughts.

I posted on Facebook how excited I was to discover that my iTunes account still had a decent gift card balance left on it that I'd forgotten about since Christmas. So naturally I was looking for some fun stuff to download. A comment was made saying, "Or you can just download it."

Umm…

You can imagine my confusion. Technically that's what I was going to be doing. The only way to complete a purchase off of iTunes is by allowing it to download to your computer… What are you suggesting I download? The gift card balance??

She clarified for me with, "The songs. Illegally."

Me: "Well, seeing as I'm a musician who would like to get paid for my work too, you can see why I'd be against that…"

She: "hahahaha yeaahh"

New comment from her: "but technically wouldn't you still be happy people wanted youre music but was just to broke to buy it?" (grammatical errors left alone. I'm not gonna go there. )

Sigh.

I definitely know which side of the argument I'm on, and I'm sure you could guess even if you didn't know me personally. I'm a musician. I want that to be my career. I don't want to have to have a day job and/or just do music as a hobby. People don't like to talk about money alongside art, but the fact is that if you want to make a living from your art, you need to get paid. Any art as a career is also a business and needs to be treated as such to have any measure of monetary success. Artists need to pay the bills, too.

I equate this to my days of working in restaurants. Not always, but usually, when someone comments directly to you at the end of their meal about how great your service was, you can count on a crappy tip. I'm not really sure why that is, but it happens, and the crappy tip will always negate the compliment. Just like everybody else, servers need money in order to pay their bills and survive. I don't think the bank that gave me my car loan accepts compliments that I received in place of money. If they did, that would rock, and we'd all be living in mansions, haha.

As for the "too broke to buy it" question, not to sound rude, but come on. Songs on iTunes cost 99 cents or $1.29. Most people can dig that up from the couch cushions. And okay, fine, you need to spend a minimum of $15 to buy an iTunes giftcard if you can't or don't want to use a debit or credit card. You know what? Then save your money. It's still only $15.

And if you watch for it, musicians offer free downloads on their own all the time, as well as discounted prices or bundle packages like, "Buy our album and get a free t-shirt." The difference here is that it is an offer willingly given by the creators. Their choice. My band will be offering stuff like that as well. It's good business practice and an even better way to create a connection and relationship with your fans.

The issue is that over time, somehow music and other forms of art have slowly become  viewed in society as something that people shouldn't have to pay for, ever, at all. And that's what's not fair. Time, effort, and money have been invested by artists to create something of value. People will pay $1 for a greasy fast-food burger that will be gone shortly and wreak havoc on their bodies, while refusing to pay $1 for a song that will last them forever, creating continual enjoyment with no threat of indigestion.

But for as annoyed as we can get by this, I and a lot of others still accept piracy as a constant problem that will likely never go away. It has existed ever since the dawn of blank cassette tapes, possibly even earlier in a form that I don't know about. Remember mix-tapes? Waiting by the radio for your favorite song to come on and then trying to make sure you hit "record" at the right time? My, how far we've come! Piracy has certainly evolved right alongside the music industry itself. I honestly don't think it can ever be solved, and I can tell you right now that the "big guys" taking people to court for past pirating was never gonna scare anybody.

People will continue to be able to create free playlists on YouTube (and download the songs with software that will rip the audio from the videos) or listen to free tracks on Pandora or the artists' Facebook pages. Friends will burn CDs for friends. I admit I used to download music for free, too, and I'm not gonna tell people not to lend their CDs to their friends because I've borrowed my share as well. It's all going to continue.

And sure, someone who downloaded your music illegally is still very likely to buy tickets to your shows. I get that. Because at the end of the day, in any era of the music industry, the fact remains that artists have always made the bulk of their money from playing shows, which is another reason why despite being bothered by piracy, I'm not about to join any rallies. It's just that it would be nice if the gig money wasn't also making up for possible album sales lost to piracy, rather than just being pure gig money earned. Like when you're a server in a restaurant and you get a really good tip from one table, but the next one stiffs you, and now that good tip is no longer a good tip–it's just covering what that other table should've tipped you. You're now just even instead of being ahead.

It's not the end of the world; it's just sad and a real buzzkill. And in the case of the artists, we don't know that we're being stiffed, but what we don't know could still be hurting us because we're not bringing in all the funds we could be. And if there are no funds, there's no next album. I realize that's going to extremes a bit because again, the majority of funds comes from shows anyway, and a 99-cent download lost here and there to piracy won't break the bank, but it happens often enough that the money lost adds up and probably still could've made a difference for the affected artist.

But I guess on the other hand, piracy continues to force artists of all kinds to be more creative to avert it. "Oh, you downloaded my album illegally? Congratulations. I'm glad you like my music. But if you had just gone to my website, you'd have seen my offer to download it from me for $15, but also get a free t-shirt AND a free ticket to my meet-and-greet. But that's okay. I will gladly let you pay $25 plus shipping for just the t-shirt."

Haha!

I know this can be a touchy subject, and I haven't meant to offend anyone. I just know where I stand, but I'm not about to become a pirate hunter, either. Ain't nobody got time for that! 

But I really want to know: what are your thoughts? Please share them in the comments below or on my Facebook wall!

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