I recently read an article which I found to be one of the best articles that I have read on copyrighted items. It was entitled MP3’s Are Not the Devil. He really hits the nail on the head and talks about the different things that are going on with copyrighted items such as CD’s and DVD’s. The thing that I liked about the article is the fact that he does not deny the fact that there is a moral issue with copying CD’s and DVD’s, but he talks about who is really hurt by the issue. The people that are really hurt by copying CD’s and DVD’s are not the people who actually wrote them, but rather the big corporations that produce them, such as record companies. Artists are the ones that should be making all the money anyway, but because of record companies most artists don’t even get 20% of the record sales profits.
My thoughts are immediately turned to a band that I have recently become introduced to by my wife, The Format. The Format is an amazing inspiration as to how the music industry is going. After being introduced to The Format I went and saw one of their shows, it was an amazing show and I gained a whole bunch of appreciation for their music after seeing it live. Anyway, while at the show the lead singer had mentioned that their record label had recently dropped them because they apparently were not making enough money. The band decided to continue on and recorded a CD on their own label and then after a few months of selling it, put it up on their website so anyone could download it for free. The funny thing about it is that this record company who did not think that they were making enough money apparently did not realize that regardless of record sales, they were still producing quality work that their fans wanted to hear night after night in sell out shows, such as the one that I went to.
Bringing it back to the article that I read, I found, and completely agree with the fact that artists should be the ones who are being rewarded for their work, not the big companies who don’t really do anything. As with The Format, we can see that an artist can and will eventually still be able to make big money without the record companies, because fans will still pay to go see their shows and buy their merchandise.
