Downloading Music

Here’s something that I find interesting: there’s so many different views on whether or not someone should download music off the internet. Part of me wonders if this is a choice everyone should make for themselves, or if there is one absolute right answer to this issue. I’m not going to try to answer that question in this entry, rather state what my approach to it, and the reasons for my choice.

I download music regularly. I use the iTunes Music Store quite often. A couple years ago I used LimeWire. I’ve also used Napster and Puretracks. By far, the easiest program to use was LimeWire. The simple reason for this was that each track could be searched for, with various sizes, types, and performances showing up at the end. And it would be all free of charge. This was great for me, as there was tons of music that I liked, but couldn’t find or afford to buy CD’s for.

But every time I downloaded a song this way, I always questioned whether or not it was legal to do so. I’d heard opinions for both sides of that argument, but I couldn’t be certain one way or another. Finally, my conscience gave me enough of a hard time that I got rid of the program, as well as all the files I had downloaded from it. Drastic, I suppose. But it was the only way to clear my conscience. I was glad I did it.

This brought me back to the problem of not listening to all the music I liked. I still had an extensive library (my parents have hundreds of CDs), but new songs coming out could only be heard on the radio. I started to pay for downloads using Puretracks, and an amazing deal with Napster. (Unlimited downloads for 3 months, at only $39.95. It worked out to 11¢ per song. Not bad at all.) Some time after my Napster subscription expired, I got an iPod. I started using iTunes for playing music, but when I tried to load my Napster tracks into the program, I found they were locked out of every player except Napster itself. This was a bummer. I decided that for music I had already paid for, it would be ok for me to download it off LimeWire, so I re-installed the program. Of course, 443 songs would be far too time-consuming, so I chose “only” 100 or so that I would download as unprotected mp3’s for iPod use.

Now I use the iTunes Store. And that is what I intend to continue doing. And now for the why behind the what.

I’ve heard people tell me that downloading music for free off the internet is illegal in the States, but perfectly legal in Canada. I’ve never bothered to research that for myself, but in a sense, I don’t really care. I, myself, am not comfortable downloading media off the internet for free without specific permission from the one it belongs to. I know that someone has spent months of time, effort, and money into producing something a mere 4 minutes long, and that they deserve to be paid for their work, if someone is willing to listen to it. Therefore, I determine it to be a matter of conscience, rather than a matter of legality, on which I base my decision for this issue.

I’ve been told by more than one person that in Canada, all blank media (like CD’s) have an added cost to them, which goes to the artists and record companies who produce media. This is done on the assumption that the blank media will hold freely-downloaded files, for which the artist will not receive due compensation. Again, I have not bothered to research this for myself, so I can’t verify the claim. In my opinion, whatever tariff they may add to blank media cannot possibly hope to keep pace with the amount of free material that the media can/will hold. Let’s say someone puts 20 free songs onto a CD. At 99¢ a song (the typical price in online stores), that’s just short of $20. There is no way in the world that a pile of blank CD’s costs an extra $20 when purchased. And even if it does, that’s only one CD being used. If someone were to do that with the whole pile, the artist is losing out big time! All that to say, I don’t think the added cost/tax/tariff would be sufficient to offset the amount of freely-downloaded material that is consumed, so I don’t see that as justification for my right to download at no charge.

Then there’s the argument that artist and record companies are already stupid rich, so they aren’t going to be hurt by not getting paid for a few of their songs. Not only is that not a good reason for doing wrong – if it is wrong – but while that’s probably true for established artists, new up-and-comers are not stupid rich, and they can will have to struggle to counter the amount of their new hits that they aren’t getting paid for. That’s hardly fair to them.

So how serious do I take this stand? Well according to my “Purchased” playlist in my iTunes, I have purchased 111 media files from the iTunes Store. A few of these files were free offers from the Store, so let’s just use the round number of 100. I’ve downloaded 17 music videos, each costing about $2.29. That’s 39 bucks. I’ve also downloaded 5 full-length movies, each at $9.99. That’s another 50 bucks. I’ve also spent probably 10 bucks on iPod games. When it comes to music tracks, my math would indicate 78 songs, though without rounding it’s probably over 80, so we’ll use 80 as a round number. Those run for 99¢ each. That works out to about 79 dollars and change.
Now before iTunes, I spent the aforementioned $40 on Napster. I also remember buying probably 6 individual Puretracks cards worth $10 each. Now let’s crunch some numbers.

Six Puretracks cards at $10 each = $60
One Napster card at $40 = $40
About 80+ songs off iTunes = $79
Five movies off iTunes = $50
Seventeen music videos off iTunes = $39

By my calculations, I have spent $268 on media I could’ve downloaded for free, but chose not to. That’s enough for me to treat 29 friends to wings at the Pony Corral tomorrow. That’s how seriously I take my position.

I actually never calculated this amount before. It’s higher than I thought it would be. Maybe I should cut back. Once again, I don’t know if there is a definitive, absolute right and wrong to this issue. But now you know where I stand, and why. Have a good week!

-Bernier