Audiophile

I've been doing a bit of reading this week about music piracy. It is a hot topic these days with Section 92a here in New Zealand, which as it slowly crept up to an activation date was finally scrapped. I'm very glad about this, it seemed like a pretty unfair way to punish pirates since it was based on suspicion only. Reading a torrent blog recently (torrentfreak.com) has been interesting as he comments on the situation here in New Zealand.

In my readings this week I read a great point about piracy at torrentfreak. This of course is one of the things that upsets me about the big industry people complaining about pirated music. Sure if people are downloading, burning and selling your CD for profit there is a market they are taking away and they should be punished. However the big business of the music industry seem to not care about the other side of how music piracy can work. Often using P2P and access to other free music is how people discover new bands and check they like albums or artists before a purchase. Sharing an MP3 with a friend helps to spread the word and to promote a band. Up and coming artists are often vary aware of this, and myspace launched a career or two (Lily Allen). It seems the people who are most concerned about these things are the ones who are already rich and famous. Look at Metallica who were well known for their opinion on Napster. These guys are HUGE and well known, which only comes from selling CDs, getting radio airplay and television airplay and doing sell out concerts. All the things that make you famous are what make you money. To get known sometimes takes getting your music out there, at P2P networks and free music helps here. While some artists are embracing this and the new social mediums and new methods of distribution others seem to forget that piracy has just been updated, not more mix-tapes made from the radio or copied off a mate, now you can access songs from anywhere in the world to 'share'.

Sadly if you live outside the US or UK finding decent ways to legally stream and explore music gets harder, in 2007 Pandora shut out non-US users and now last.fm is closing it's streaming services for those not in the US, UK and Germany. I had just started to explore last.fm but without the streaming function I'm not sure I will continue to use other features. International licensing is obviously an issue but it seems the access to free and legal music is sometimes deterred by international borders. New Zealand couldn't access itunes stores until a long time after it's release in the US. Now the legal streaming services are quick to block out users. So how are we meant to legally access music, and of course there is the other question with some streaming and other services, how do we know it is legal? Not everyone is even aware if their activity is illegal. I think it is more common knowledge now, but I think there are still people who aren't even aware you're not meant to download a song from limewire. Most people probably aren't aware how the industry works, that if they hear it on the radio the artist gets paid but if you download it that they don't.

Interestingly the only thing I torrent is Tv Shows, living in New Zealand we don't always get the best shows from the US and UK, I also tend to forget to watch my favourite shows because I go out, downloading lets me keep on top of them. Although streaming TV lets me do this also I find that the networks don't always have the licence for streaming my fave international shows, but I do keep up with local content this way.
TV of course don't complain as much about piracy, because really the American networks aren't loosing out. They make all the money on the first screening, which is the one people record to upload on the internet. They can still syndicate because other places still want to screen the top rating shows, even if their audience drops because of downloads. TV is still a preferred advertising medium so TV does well in spite of piracy because the money comes from the advertising, not the consumer in the case of CD sales, or movie tickets.

Of course the thing about me downloading shows is how my word of mouth can encourage people to watch shows. "Oh I've already seen the new episodes of Desperate Housewives, I actually really enjoyed them" I get recommendations from friends who have already downloaded series that have just started here. I got one friend watching the Skins re-runs on C4 after raving about the new season I'm currently downloading. I also will re-watch my fave shows when they hit the TV screens.

In order to be popular, for Music especially, you need to be exposed to people. This gets harder and harder in this disjointed world. Also for music they are at constant competition with ipods and personal music collections and need to promote new music to people who may not be listening to the radio. In order to do this surely piracy in all it's evil illegal way is actually beneficial to promoting artists.

Currently I am listening to my latest cd purchases. I would highly recommend them, Santogold's self titled album and Tegan and Sara's latest 'The Con'. Both of these artists were recommended to me by friends. Santogold has had a few songs featured on TV shows but has yet to hit the airwaves in New Zealand. Tegan and Sara only get airplay from the local University Station but I know has a pretty good following, plenty of people rocked up to see them play Shadows a few years ago and a few of my friends jetted to Australia at the start of the year to go their concerts. They are being promoted through word of mouth, and probably a few downloads to check out the music.

I think people are too obsessed with money, surely as a musician it would be more important that people love your music, listen to it, enjoy it, share it, dance to it, cry to it and sing along. Instead it seems being able to afford another BMW is of more concern to some, or at least to the record labels that manage them.