Dr_Watso
Platinum Member
Yes, and it's already happened. Almost nobody I've ever come across recently says they pay for music. Lots of folks go to youtube, or other similar, some still file-share, lots make copies of other's music collection. I'm talking about actual music lovers buying good stuff, not the crap pop music that the record industry still pushes on the masses. The best I can find is a few folks who buy used records and cds, and the bands get nothing from that.So if nobody is paying for music, you think only the record companies suffer?
Things have changed. Bands today can do best by getting good deals on the shows they play, selling merch, and promoting their music as their service, rather than trying hard to sell something that is basically an infinite resource that costs almost nothing to re-produce.
Visual artists don't make money when people take in their work online, or appreciate it in a gallery. But they still do those things, because that's how they promote themselves in an era where digital copies of things are stupidly easy to make, and the reality is that you're not taking anything physical from anyone.
Stealing is wrong, but I think the term is being mis-appropriated here. Making a copy of something non-physical is just not the same thing as taking something away from another so they no longer have it. The fact is nobody really gives a rats ass about anything physical like CDs; and only the ultra-in crowd is involved in the recent vinyl renaissance.Just because someone says "stealing as wrong" doesn't mean they're saying "record companies rule". The industry is corrupt and terrible, but stealing the music doesn't seem to have hurt them much. Artists, on the other hand ...
Lars can be a douche all he wants, he can certainly afford it. Forgive me if I don't listen to rich douchebags go on about how much money we owe them for listening to their music.