Sometimes all the downloading by people reminds me of the time when I was a young boy and exchanged music with friends to tape each other records on cassette. Long time ago, indeed, but the similarity is there: The best music I wanted to have, which meant I would buy it and according to me those who would buy records and not just tape other one's collections, were the ones who were really keen on music and bands. Not only a record (or CD) was so much nicer to own, you also supported the artists from who you like the music so well.

But ofcourse there is a difference between now and back then: These days the problem isn't people exchanging some of their collection with friends (by copying cd's), but the fact that less and less people are buying while the amount of 'copiers' (downloading) only grows. It seems to be that people still like music but they don't seem to care anymore. Talking about a band you might ask for someone's favourite album, but more often you get no answer, because more and more people don't really know an album, they just know some tracks. Downloaded. That's a shame, but unfortunately it's a lot more than just a shame.

First of all I believe music is worth far more than just to be a file in someone's computer and I'm not talking about the difference in quality of sound in the first place or about the artwork. Just the music,a song, is worth so much more, but these days more and more people don't want to see what music is worth and ofcourse you can discuss anything, but still music is protected by something as a copyright.

Well, actually it's all a matter of attitude. It might be a shame music isn't worth more than just a mp3 file in someone's computer and people are not familiar with an oeuvre by an artist or band, but let's stick to the facts. And while facing the facts of music being protected with copyright, it's a crime to share your files for others to download. In fact all the music people download is just as 'free' as anything you steal out of a shop.

Back in the old days it was written on many covers: “Hometaping is killing music” , but with the years it only got worse. And these days a lot of CD's are 'copy protected', but that's only a restriction to a right, having bought the CD, so paid for the music. I do believe not much harm is done when you exchange some of your collection with friends this way and some artists even agree to that (remember 'Ich will brennen' by Asp), but the problem is that many people 'own' music which is not been paid for at all.
A matter of attitude it is, while for a lot of people music is something that you just don't buy, because it's “free”, while they forget someone has to pay to make possible something continues.

How about this: There is a place when you can meet friends and spend your time with all kind of entertainment, like reading, watching TV, dancing, playing games or whatever. When you want something to drink, you can just help yourself at the bar and ofcourse, for each bottle you drink you pay. You could say, well, the drinks are there, there's no one standing at the bar, so why pay for it? You can even laugh at people who do pay. But what will happen then? Maybe the drinks dissappear or otherwise, when no one is paying, an entrance fee is asked, while you used to drop by for free. No matter what, someone has to pay for the drinks, even though you easily could just refuse to pay cause it's there and why spending your money? You can ask yourself but when you do, you should also ask yourself why you are paying for the clothes you wear or the house you live in? Ofcourse, you can stick to believe that some things are free, because they 'are just there', but sooner or later it will disappear, because it's a a fact that someone has to pay. People complain about the price of a CD, but all the downloading is one of the reasons.

Ofcourse, spreading the music on the internet is a way of promotion, but those who stick to that opinion are mostly artists without a label or the ones big enough to make enough profit with their activities. Yes, we hear the big labels scream, but in fact is doing harm to the small ones and fact is that there will be less opportunity for new artist to sign a deal. And ofcourse, you can only use the internet to promote things (like songs) if you are the owner of it, just like you won't ever point at a house and offer it to people to stay in for free when the property isn't yours.

Some people think “it should not all about being money”, but if you only steal music by downloading for “free” you just make money a more important topic in the music industry, cause you especially harm those who could be described as being underground artists. Most of those artists are not highly focussed on making cash, but they have to eat too. These days some artists, for example Oswald Henke (Goethes Erben) are considering their professional carreer and we concider such a big loss.

Oswald Henke (picture (c)Goethes Erbben)

Downloading is killing music. And no, that's not a Millennium bug or so. Some labels already declared to close down, like the German label Dependent. “The immense growth of illegal downloads (example here: the Russian pirate site Mp3db.ru) which Herwig demonstrated in numbers of 5000 downloads of the album "Double-Crosser" of Seabound in only 7 days (while the world-wide CD sales in the first 2 - 3 week were around 2500 pcs...”, said by label owner Stefan Herwig.

An example of how this problem concern the small labels. The bigger ones may complain too, but so far there's not been proved that selling less CD's of major acts has anything to do with the growing amount of people downloading, but the problem does not dissappear just by that. A little less profit for the major labels, while the small, underground labels will just be gone and you will have the choice between several Top 40 songs and some crappy amateur music to download.

Thorsten from Equinoxe Records:
“yes, I know it is a threat to CD sales. Equinoxe Records is existing since 1998 now and the sales are down dramatically. So you can be sure that it kills music as we know it yet. Everything will change ... and I fear not to the better.
Profit only for small bands without a label as they reach a lot of people. But only as long as they make it just for fun. As soon as they see that they only put in money (a lot of money) into their music without receiving the respect from people who buy their music, the fun is gone. The future: many labels gone (Dependent is only the beginning), many bands gone, less good music. Thats the way it is, for 99% of the people music is nothing more than a can of coke, hear it once and throw it away. So the music will have the same quality soon: throw-away-music”.

Indeed. So, what's the future? Just some lousy amateurbands and some big ones, even higher prices paid for CD's and concerts. If you really like underground music, it should be your concern too.  

Nick.