(Ilegal) Internet music downloads ....

[tripaddict]

they're trying to ban people from downloading (illegal) music .... this is never going to work.

google fuck off your a search engine and nothing else

money grabbing commercial labels like EMI SONY etc

im glad they're failing and we're seeing x10 more independent labels .... its opening up the market for us mortals

opinions ...

[jaydot]

Amen. EMI will always make millions off the back of the Beatles etc. They own the rights for like 50 more years and won't put their songs on Spotify.

The more the big labels try and monopolise the music industry the more indie labels will fight back like say.

In the savage world of commercialism of course there's gonna be an oligopoly but it's nice to see that the masses have rebelled against it and made it a free market so to speak.

[FSTZ]

well...

people are starting to torrent tunes from my label

not cool considering we are a small operation

piracy does hurt the small labels too, not just sony emi and bmg

[sifres]

^ this


Luckily there is a high level of awareness in the dubstep scene. People buy their Mp3's generally speaking. At least that's the vibe I get from here and dj's I know.

[jaydot]

I think it's biting the hand that feeds you if you illegally downlaod underground music, as the essence of underground music is to keep it exclusive..........

[Freshman]

well...

people are starting to torrent tunes from my label

not cool considering we are a small operation

piracy does hurt the small labels too, not just sony emi and bmg

Don't get me wrong, but how does this hurt your label (except from the obvious heartbreaking ofc ).
Personally i think people who download pirated stuff never had the intention of paying for their music anyway.

I know it's controversial to say, but view this from a another perspective. Your tunes are reaching a larger audience (eg. pirates YARR), which in a very optimistic point of view is free advertisement for your products.
DJs or people who just love the music/scene too much to not pay for a tune will buy it anyway, and those are the people who's support you really need. Because A; they bring your labels music to the people. and B; they are the core of the scene (aren't they?)

Now i'm just spitting my opinion on this as far as i know how things go with music and distribution (not that much). It may change if i get to know things i do not know now..
We all know no ones going to stop music piracy, so we better use it to profit..

[FSTZ]

well...

when people want a tune that is released on my label they usually have to purchase it from beatport or another retail store

but if the tunes are available for free on rapidshare or torrenttech (these are the sites I have been alerted to) they don't have to purchase the music and we receive zero sales

and unlike a lot of these labels, we pay for professional mastering, graphic design, and advertising

so it really doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how this is hurting the independant label

you might think because something is free (pirated) on the internet (music, software, etc...) it is your right to have it.

it comes down to character, morality and your personal ethics wheter or not you can justify stealing

[tripaddict]

music is made to be listened too ... big artists make there money from gigs.

the thing that gets me is that the only reason people paid for music before was b/c they had to pay to get a reproduction ... how much does it cost to copy a file ? ... nothing ... im glad we have the freedom to choose to listen to whatever we want, its making the music scene more diverse / interesting .... and im glad were no longer drip fed a stream of commercial bollox

take for instance today i logged on to twitter and one of the trending topics is 'justin beiber' WTF ?

another piece of commercial bollox showing no true talent what so ever .... manipulated for the mainstream.

on the flip side i also think its bad for artists like 'ellie goulding' her tune was excellent till i heard it on radio 1 ... the radio edit sucks dick

[Freshman]

when people want a tune that is released on my label they usually have to purchase it from beatport or another retail store
but if the tunes are available for free on rapidshare or torrenttech (these are the sites I have been alerted to) they don't have to purchase the music and we receive zero sales

I understand. I might not have good insight in this, but i'm guessing these are the people whos favourite music player is youtube, not willing to pay money for music in the first place.
But perhaps i am underestimating..

you might think because something is free (pirated) on the internet (music, software, etc...) it is your right to have it.
it comes down to character, morality and your personal ethics wheter or not you can justify stealing

That's for sure! what i was trying to say

[sifres]

they're trying to ban people from downloading (illegal) music .... this is never going to work.

google fuck off your a search engine and nothing else

money grabbing commercial labels like EMI SONY etc

im glad they're failing and we're seeing x10 more independent labels .... its opening up the market for us mortals

opinions ...

I think you have to seperate your 2 remarks here.

1. Money grabbing commercial labels
2. More independent labels

Number 1 is true. And I don't feel sorry for them. Number 2 doesn't necessarily flow from number 1. The rise of independent labels is more something to do with the rise of the interwebs. Before you went to a shop and could only buy what they selected, wich is a lot of mainstream stuff. Now you google and can find about anything. So more decent music floats to the top. Obviously a good thing, but it's not as if you made it possible by robbing from the big guys.

Although I concur on your view that robbing the suits isn't something to be ashamed of and heck, I do it too! Truth is John Doe behind the keyboard doesn't give a fuck about the fact whether he's stealing of a major company or a smalltimer trying to make enough money to simply keep on doing what he's doing.

[Depone]

when people want a tune that is released on my label they usually have to purchase it from beatport or another retail store
but if the tunes are available for free on rapidshare or torrenttech (these are the sites I have been alerted to) they don't have to purchase the music and we receive zero sales

I understand. I might not have good insight in this, but i'm guessing these are the people whos favourite music player is youtube, not willing to pay money for music in the first place.
But perhaps i am underestimating..

you might think because something is free (pirated) on the internet (music, software, etc...) it is your right to have it.
it comes down to character, morality and your personal ethics wheter or not you can justify stealing

That's for sure! what i was trying to say

On the whole, in my experience, people are really willing to buy and support independent labels and artists. The ones who are youtubing and myspace ripping are the fad buyers. Only looking for online 'rep' because they might have a seriously degraded version of a new dubplate . This is also very harmful as it harms the integrity of the song, and makes the artist/label sound rubbish.
Im not going to lie, i used to download a fair bit until about 3 years ago when i decided to change my moral standing as these small labels need as much help as the EMI's that are currently falling to their knees.

[Mad_EP]

Sorry, but many arguments I have read in this thread are simply justifying an over-inflated sense of entitlement.

First of all, in terms of the argument that illegal downloading "helps" underground music reach a wider audience... I once got in contact with a download blog that was posting all my releases. I wasn't irate, in fact - I even admitted that while I could demand they take down my files, that I wasn't naive enough to think that would make even the slightest dent in the number of sites doing it. However, I did call them on their supposed "spreading the music they love" reasoning... by pointing out they were not providing any value back to the artists, just helping other people steal. I said - if you really did care, the least you could do would be write reviews, perhaps not provide the whole album, but rather make dj mixes, etc... something, ANYTHING to actually put in a little effort themselves. In fact, they hadn't even put in the effort to realize they were posting incorrect information about the release (wrong track titles, incorrect record label, etc etc). They assured me they agreed with my comments and were going to implement those changes. Surprise, surprise... they never did.

I also get tired of the argument "I don't believe in paying for music, but I would support the artists I like if they ever played a show near me". Again, they kinda miss the point. Do you think artists get decent paying gigs from having huge torrent downloads? Promoters need to know they aren't going to totally lose their shirt by booking any given artist, and often times they hedge their bets on artists that release on bigger labels. Why? Because bigger labels tend to sign artists that can sell records - and if people are willing to pay for an artist's records they are more likely to pay to hear them play too. If you don't believe me - try to get a paying gig by telling the promoter "People aren't willing to buy my records, but they illegally download me like crazy! Wanna book me?" See how long it takes the promoter to stop laughing before they tell you to piss off.

It is true that almost none of an artist's pay comes from record sales anymore... but that still doesn't make it right to think their music shouldn't be paid for. Releasing on labels still has value for artists. Besides helping get better gigs, it can help lead to licensing deals, and other ways that help artists survive off their music income. If a musician doesn't make enough money to justify spending all the time and resources into their music... they usually stop. They don't necessarily stop making music, but stop having it available to the public. It is naive to think they would just say "Oh well - here you go" and just put it all up for free. Instead they'd keep it to themselves, or just share it with friends, etc.

The best way to combat the drivel you despise so much in the mainstream is to buy the music you do like in the underground.

[deadly_habit]

[bunge]

well...

people are starting to torrent tunes from my label

not cool considering we are a small operation

piracy does hurt the small labels too, not just sony emi and bmg

Searching our label on google, we found some of our tunes on an illegal download site. We're considering getting in contact and asking them to take it down, maybe using the symapthy vote (we're only a small label!)

[FSTZ]

well...

people are starting to torrent tunes from my label

not cool considering we are a small operation

piracy does hurt the small labels too, not just sony emi and bmg

Searching our label on google, we found some of our tunes on an illegal download site. We're considering getting in contact and asking them to take it down, maybe using the symapthy vote (we're only a small label!)

yeah.. we tried that

they just banned us on the forum they were being distributed through

[bmills]

Here's my moral view on this:
I download illegaly. Bigger heads that go on tour and such don't have much to lose. But for the smaller underground scene, I definitely support it.

Illegal*** btw

[setspeed]

dude

in the last decade, single sales for 'bigger heads that go on tour' have fallen from about 8,000 for a massive single to about 1500.

sales for 'the smaller underground scene' have fallen from about 1200 to about 300.

everyone will be 'the smaller underground scene' within 2 years

[press]

well...

people are starting to torrent tunes from my label

not cool considering we are a small operation

piracy does hurt the small labels too, not just sony emi and bmg

one way to thwart these torrents is to make as many torrents of free content and mixes with your label name and artists names/tracklists in the title so if people search for tunes on your label they are much more likely to find your promo material you want them to have.

[kidlogic]

I was thinking that it was just a-holes who rip off youtube who download via torrents...

...then this discussion came up on another board and I was shocked how many people go to torrent sites, p2p sites etc who actually DJ and make money off of gigs with tunes they've downloaded illegally. Just because its not talked about here, and when it is there are a good amount of people who post in support of buying music doesnt mean that there are no members of DSF who do it... it just means they're smart enough not to incriminate themselves.

Ive caught friends of mine spinning torrent tunes and illegal downloads on my radio show. Namely one big dubplate that was only available as a white which someone suspiciously had BEFORE the white was even released. He got a hell of a talking to, as I make it a point to make sure that only legit tunes are played during my airtime.

Just dont do it folks really... I mean, we have it so much better than even a few years ago, especially here in the US. Who remembers waiting an extra month for releases to make it here after they were released in the UK - if we could even get it on vinyl this side of the pond?


Now, the thing that got me was when I "released" the California Remixed EP for free and found THAT on a torrent site... wtf?

[setspeed]

haha yeah the i.d. & baobinga album was released for free this month and was on torrent sites within 36 hours.....