Over the weekend we heard about someone downloading the entire Miles Davis discography for free. Our first thought was, that’s a pretty sizeable collection; how long would it take for them to listen to and absorb the whole thing? The second thing that popped into our heads was, Wow...a musician’s work is of no monetary value these days.
We’ve been theorizing how this scenario can be seen as the plot for Revenge of the (computer) Nerds. Except, that instead of the grateful thanks from the artists they seem to think they have liberated from the evil record company empire, the musicians' response is more along the lines of Thanks a lot, dorks: you just killed a revenue stream.
Of course, immediately, the ‘Hey, I buy new music but download for free the music of artists who’ve already made their money' argument makes its customary appearance. Meanwhile, we’re still waiting to hear from anyone who has tried this line of logic with General Motors, Wal-Mart or A&P. Let us know, will ya?
And what about songwriters? How do the people that don’t perform live make a living when their main revenue source is depleted? And without songwriters there is no new music.
Thanks, guys. Go fuck with someone else’s livelihood next time.
