17/04: A Thin Line
I may get a little preachy here so ples bear with me. An issue that many of my friends and I have had to grapple with is one brought up by the innumerable download engines that are present nowadays. We can essentially get any music we want, usually for no cost. While this is all fine and dandy I personally do have reservations. If I like this music enough, I find I feel guilty not giving the artists their due by paying for their CD’s.
On the other hand, if there is just one song on the cd I like, I am very reluctant to use my hard earned (ha!) money to buy a CD with music I won't listen to but for that one song.
The balance I have achieved is this. If I hear a song by an artist I like, I download it. If I like it enough, I will search out others and if I like enough, I will buy the CD, regardless if I will like the rest. I have recently decided to do the same for shows I watch on Youtube. If I watch enough episodes, I feel obligated to buy the DVD's, even if I’m not going to likely watch them very often. I feel I owe the artist, if I’ve enjoyed them enough to watch several episodes, I want to reward his/her/it's hard work. It's not a perfect method, (how many is enough to sway me to buying the CD or DVD) but I leave that to my gut instinct.
Some might say that, especially if it’s a popular artist, that downloading the music is a victimless crime, that such successful people wont miss ur small contribution to their wealth. I’ll spare you the “if everyone thought that way” argument cause I’m suck of it too. However, I personally am a individual of principles. I like the music, I want the artists to continue making more, so therefore I pay for it. If u compromise and make exceptions, it can be habit forming. Strength of character is avoiding compromising with urslef or your values. It may be hard, but you have to live with urslef everyday, so try and stick to ur principles, it certainly makes my life easier.
On the other hand, if there is just one song on the cd I like, I am very reluctant to use my hard earned (ha!) money to buy a CD with music I won't listen to but for that one song.
The balance I have achieved is this. If I hear a song by an artist I like, I download it. If I like it enough, I will search out others and if I like enough, I will buy the CD, regardless if I will like the rest. I have recently decided to do the same for shows I watch on Youtube. If I watch enough episodes, I feel obligated to buy the DVD's, even if I’m not going to likely watch them very often. I feel I owe the artist, if I’ve enjoyed them enough to watch several episodes, I want to reward his/her/it's hard work. It's not a perfect method, (how many is enough to sway me to buying the CD or DVD) but I leave that to my gut instinct.
Some might say that, especially if it’s a popular artist, that downloading the music is a victimless crime, that such successful people wont miss ur small contribution to their wealth. I’ll spare you the “if everyone thought that way” argument cause I’m suck of it too. However, I personally am a individual of principles. I like the music, I want the artists to continue making more, so therefore I pay for it. If u compromise and make exceptions, it can be habit forming. Strength of character is avoiding compromising with urslef or your values. It may be hard, but you have to live with urslef everyday, so try and stick to ur principles, it certainly makes my life easier.
