I’m a Spoiled Brat!
So its been a while since we last posted an episode of the show, and for that I apologize. I guess that’s just the way life goes, you don’t always get what you want. But this week I went ahead and wrote a little editorial, these opinions are my own and not necessarily the opinion of Jerry’s.
In one of the very first episodes we recorded we discussed downloading music, and our thoughts on the progression of digital distribution via Itunes, or the Zune Marketplace. In my argument I had said that I would more than likely be more willing to purchase of physical copy of the cd rather than a digital because I love to have the whole package and see all of the wonderful artwork. However this past weekend and through many lengthy discussions with various people I’ve realized that everything I said is not the whole truth to the reason I won’t go digital.
The Truth is I’m spoiled. I’m not going to lie to you for one minute and say I’ve never illegally downloaded music. I used Napster, I’ve used Kazaa, I’ve used Limewire, I’ve used AudioGalaxy, I’ve used Soulseek, and more recently(not very recent) I’ve scoured over various blogs and got albums through rapidshare or megauploads posts. I can honestly say I’ve not illegally downloaded music in probably more than a year. I don’t want to sound like I’m a on a high horse either, because I’m not telling you to stop illegally downloading I’m just saying I’ve used them before and no longer feel I can morally support illegal downloading music.
I’ve used the “if I really like the cd, I’ll buy it” excuse, but really how many people actually do this. I know from my personal experience if I downloaded 10 albums I probably bought at least 1. Now I more than likely have a larger cd collection than most people(in the 700s) but I feel like I should never have used this excuse because really more than likely I’m not going to buy many of the cds I download.
So you’re probably asking yourself why is he all up on his horse telling us downloading is morally wrong, and how does this tie into digital distribution?
WELL, I’m getting to that. I’ve made a discovery about myself, I’m a spoiled brat! As far as I can think back I have been able to get mp3s for free when ever I want them, and as many as I want with no consequence. Now I see daily news articles about people getting massive fines for their illegally downloaded music. Daily articles that another torrent site has been shut down. It also seems daily that I see another news bulletin of yet another band breaking up, and I’m sure one of their reasons for breaking up is “its just too expensive to be a band” or “we’ve put so much money and time into this and we have nothing”. Granted a musician probably shouldn’t go into music thinking they would make a lot of money, but this is a reality of life. You need money to survive. So really my biggest reason for stopping my illegal downloading is to try and support musicians and they’re music in hopes that they keep creating music for me to enjoy.
So I’m announcing my effort to try and go digital for the sake of the artist and my wife. Yes! My wife factors into this as well, you see 700+ cds takes up quite a bit of space, and there really isn’t anymore spots for me to put my cds so I’m going to try and make a conscious effort to go digital for the sake of space. I’ve decided to give it a go and see how everything pans out. I’ve signed up for Emusic.com which seems to be really cool I got 30 mp3s for only $10 which comes out to like $.30 a track. I’m planning on using my 4000 Microsoft points that I’ve saved up on the Zune Marketplace. I think this is a whole new Steve, and I’ll try and keep you guys in the know when it comes to my digital ventures.
