Almost anything can be found on the internet, and that includes free music. Yes, the illegal kind. But many do it, regardless of legality.
Why spend a couple dollars on a song or an album if you can take a couple minutes to download it to your computer or phone? There is no one on the internet stopping you. And artists are losing money because of this.
In fact, if there was no security at concerts, artists’ concert ticket sales would decline too. Call me crazy, but I still pay for music. And I feel like I am the only one that does so. Sure, if you searched my computer files, you would find a couple songs that I downloaded for free. Nobody is perfect. But, when an album drops on iTunes, I always buy the complete album from there.
I even have a couple hard copy CD’s from the store, believe it or not. Besides me, who even spends their money on CD’s anymore? Whenever I tell someone this, they roll their eyes or laugh. They tell me that they never pay for music. They judge me for paying for music while I judge them for not paying for music.
If you really value music and the artists that you love, then you would buy their music. You can value their music in the way that you enjoy listening to it, but if you refuse to pay for a song or an album, then you really do not appreciate the artist or their work.
It is like saying that you really love a presidential candidate and that you support everything they stand for, but in the end, you do not even vote for them. You say you care, but if your actions do not match your words, then, really, you do not care. Illegally downloading music hurts the artist more than we care to think about it.
And there is the argument that the artists are rich enough, so how could some free songs hurt them? Well, what if you were forced to work every day of your life and not be paid for it? Suddenly, it is a different story when it comes to you. So if artists are not making money off of their songs, you figure they could just make the money otherwise. However, then they are forced to go on countless tours to make their money.
With all the time spent traveling the countries, there is no time to stop to write and record new music. Then who is mad at the artist when new music has not been released in a while? You. There is no denying that our favorite music artists are rich. But, they are still people just like us.
They most likely started from the bottom, and put in their time of hard work to make it to where they are now. They still have families and loved ones to provide for. In the end, legally downloaded music just sounds and feels better.
When you are buying the actual tracks put out by the artist, you are hearing exactly what the artist intended. You do not risk low-quality sounds and hours of searching for better versions if you take two seconds to buy the music legally. Legally downloaded music, or even CD’s, feel better, too. You know that you are fully supporting the artist.
When their album sales go platinum, and you did not buy the album, then you have absolutely no right to say that you have been a supporter from the get-go. When your favorite album wins awards and the artist thanks their fans, you should not be thanked-you did not spend any money to help the artist achieve platinum status and Grammy awards.
And, go ahead and just buy the physical CD too. It is a much cooler thing to do because then you have a physical copy of sounds and words. Besides, when someone comes over to your place, they want to see what kinds of CD’s or vinyl’s you have, not what songs you have in your music library.
Twenty dollars (or sometimes even less) is not a lot of money for an album that an artist has dedicated a large amount of time, money, and effort into. Besides, new albums only come out once every couple of years. Twenty dollars an artist, every two years or so, for an album that you will listen to countless times is easy. People spend more money weekly on coffee.
If you are willing to spend extra money on an organic cup of coffee to support a coffee farmer and his family, then you should realize that the concept is the same when it comes to your favorite artists.
Jill Augustine
Deputy Viewpoints Editor