7 Reasons You Should Just Pay for Music Already

Emily White, a 20-year-old intern at National Public Radio, set off heated debate after posting a letter to the NPR blog titled "I Never Owned Any Music to Begin With." In her letter, despite admitting she rarely, if ever, pays for individual songs or albums, White expressed her genuine concern that file sharing, the illegal uploading, downloading, and sharing of music, negatively impacts the livelihood of the very musicians she loves. Her letter, and in particular her final statement, "I honestly don’t think my peers and I will ever pay for albums. I do think we will pay for convenience," prompted many responses, including an eloquent one from musician David Lowery, lead singer of Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker. Lowery’s response resonated with both musicians and music fans, and quickly went viral. If you need a reason to pay for music, consider the following seven.

1. You are supporting an immoral and unethical business model:

   

   So-called "free" music isn’t really free, since in order for it to be available, it is almost always posted on websites like The Pirate Pay, Kim Dotcom, and Megaupload. Those websites need investors to operate, as well as servers (which cost money) to hold all of the wonderful music you want for free. "Legitimate" companies like Google, which purport to police illegal file sharing, serve ads on file-sharing sites, and make money from the click-throughs. And don’t forget, Verizon, AT&T, and other companies charge a toll for you to access those sites. Website and companies are banking on the fact that you will continue to ignore the ethics of the business model. Money is changing hands with everyone except the musicians, who are the actual draw for those who visit these sites.

2. The musicians you love need to make a living:

   

   There’s an assumption that anyone, be they male or female, with the balls to get on a stage and play an electric guitar is somehow then showered with cash, cars, and groupies. But in reality, the average income for a professional musician in the U.S. is $35,000 a year without any benefits. Touring does not bring in significant income, save for a small percentage of largely popular bands and brands you already know. Refusing to pay for music you love not only cuts into the livelihood of musicians, it also impacts the business of running an independent record label, a professional recording studio, or live music venue. Lowery named two friends, singer Mark Linkous of the critically acclaimed band Sparklehorse, and Vic Chesnutt, as two examples of musicians who, despite their growing popularity, watched their incomes drop as a result of "fans" illegally downloading their music. Sadly, due to medical issues, mounting debt, and losing battles with depression, both Linkous and Chesnutt took their own lives.

3. You’re polluting the planet:

   

   This may sound weird, especially given the fact that digital music files are, in the words of Lady Gaga, "invisible," but you’re actually not avoiding polluting the planet by file-sharing. Computers, cell phones, and music players are all subject to a relatively limited lifespan and destined to end up in the 20 million to 50 million tons of electronics thrown out every year. With more and more musicians and record labels opting to make CD and vinyl record packaging out of recyclable, biodegradable material, perhaps spending money on the physical product can cut down on the amount of environmentally hazardous e-waste our planet is quickly accumulating.

4. You can afford it:

   

   Using sites like Amazon.com and iTunes allows you to download songs individually, sometimes at prices as low as 69 cents a track or $4 for an entire album. Compare what you spend each month on cable service, your water or gas bill, or at Starbucks to the cost of legitimately purchasing four albums’ worth of music each month. Yes, the entire boxed set of Miles Davis’ The Cellar Door Sessions is a bit expensive. But if you’re willing to spend money on a whipped cream-topped coffee drink that upsets your stomach, why aren’t you willing to pay 99 cents for the song you heard over the coffee shop’s sound system while buying that drink?

5. Music has value:

   

   When asked to comment on the sale of her album Born This Way on Amazon.com for a measly 99 cents, Lady Gaga famously said she didn’t think her album, in its digital form, was worth more than 99 cents. What she didn’t tell her fans is that for every 99-cent download, Amazon had agreed to pay her label, Interscope/Universal Music Group, the standard rate, probably around $11.99, to make up for the loss. For every Lady Gaga, you have hundreds of other, less famous but no less incredible musicians who can’t afford to play these kinds of games with consumers. You can’t see, touch, or eat music, but does that mean it has less of an intrinsic value than a physical product?

6. Free doesn’t mean more convenient:

   

   Emily White concluded her letter by saying, "All I require is the ability to listen to what I want, when I want, and how I want it. Is that too much to ask?" This statement left a lot of people in the developed world scratching their heads. With online services including Spotify, the ubiquitous iTunes, and who knows how many websites legitimately selling music by independent artists, not to mention the handful of brick-and-mortar record stores still standing, what exactly is the problem? You type in a password, click on a link, and (hooray!) your account gets charged. If you have a high-speed connection to the Internet the whole process takes about 60 seconds.

7. You have the power:

   

   Mahatma Gandhi famously said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." Acknowledging White’s desire to work in the music industry, Lowery writes, "like so many other policies in our society, it is up to us individually to put pressure on our governments and private corporations to act ethically and fairly when it comes to artists rights. Not the other way around." Corporations who profit from the availability and illegal downloading of music will not change unless consumers raise a stink. Organized activism from the ground up, including the civil rights movement and women’s liberation movement, has been the instigator of profound change in our country. And such change begins with the decision of one individual to do what’s right.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 21st, 2012 at 9:43 pm and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.