Last week i read a blog by, well some band i never heard of, but that wasn’t the point. It was this one random, unknown musicians point of view on illegal downloading. Also, This one particular musician is a christian. This may or may not matter to you, but to me, i was curious what he had to say. Although i didn’t want to hear what followed, I needed to.
Again, for those that care, albums sales have been at a rapid decline. The cause is from a multitude of things, among them is illegal downloading. Its argued that illegal downloading is a small portion or the cause. It could be said “there’s too much music, not enough airplay/marketing”, “bad economy/prices are too high(which cd prices have actually come down)”, or even “current music sucks.”
Enough of that though. I could go on forever with stuff that has already been said, and quite frankly, very few cares.
The purpose of the blog is a part realization and confession. i confess i download illegally, but never really pay attention how much.
2004/2005 were my peak years of music buying. my collection peaked at nearly 3000 cds. wish i had pictures to prove it. 2006 took a dramatic drop i can remember buying 20 new cds that whole year. 2007 a bit fewer. 2008 i could nearly count on two hands. some cds i have kept, others i didnt mind parting with and trading in.
at the beginning of 2009, i started using a website called Demonoid. One interesting thing about this website is it tracks your downloading/uploading. Since the beginning of 2009 until now i bought 16 cds (2009: 12, 2010:5). according to my tracking info on Demonoid, since february 09 i have downloaded 250+ gigs. Now this is also movies, games, book/comics, but a good majority IS music.
Think about that. in just a year and a half I have bought only 5% of the music i have downloaded. i use to justify this by saying “if i like it, i’ll buy it.” But lets be honest. I still listen to a good chunk of what I stole. Yes, I’ll admit I stole it. It was never mine to take. Its too easy to log onto any file sharing site and take whatever i want, and leave.
I met a dude on demonoid (i’ll keep his name secret) and he refered to us as “pirates of the high frequencies”, which iat first i thought, “cool” but the more it repeated in my head, I felt even more ashamed.
Back to that original blog i read though, there were comments from kids using my same “if i like it ill buy it” method. And people were quick to call us out. I do go through and clean out what i didnt like, but there is still ALOT of music I do not rightfully own.
I keep saying i will stop anytime. It sounds very much like an addiction, and rightfully so! It is! I am always looking for that next fix, and if its free its even better! I have become an addict and a thief.
So I am now grounding myself from the internet for one month. this may not sound like a big deal, but trust me, it is.
I will be buying a notebook, and taking notes of my progress of life without the internet.
so for now i say goodbye. cya in a month.
