[no subject]

I do use soulseek to check out new music. It is by far the most
efficient way to search for and try out 20 + albums at a time. As I'm
very busy this is pretty crucial for me.

So we are agreed I might find a couple of releases out of these I want
to buy. What about the other music I'm "ripping off"? Well to start
with, it's not good enough to buy, so it gets deleted, either
immediately of whenever I have a hard disc cleaning session. I really
don't have much need to keep around a bunch of music that I didn't
like all that much.

I fail to see how an artist's sales are decreasing, when I listen to
their work and determine I don't want it. Nobody is being ripped off.
This is a sale that never would have occurred to begin with! Why is
this simple concept seemingly so difficult for some people to grasp?

I'd suggest that a better way to think about things is to compare the
practice to radio. If I hear a new song on the radio, and I don't own
the album, am I "ripping off" an artist? No I'm not. If I don't like
the song much, I'll do nothing, but if I hear a song I like, I'm going
to go look for it. Even though I could sit around taping radio shows
instead of purchasing the song, if I really wanted.

I'd also point out, many of those who download stuff and never
purchase any of it, are probably those who usually just can't afford
it. So maybe these people are indeed stealing. Even so, the artist has
not yet lost money, because this is a sale that in all likelihood
would not have ever occurred.

Anyway I buy the releases I like, in part because I do want to support
artists. But note that beyond that, a digital download from beatport
is normally of higher quality, especially since I usually buy WAV
rather than mp3 for instance. So all ethics aside, there is, in fact,
good incentive for a discriminating consumer to buy legal digital
copies of files.

~David

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