The Pros and Cons Of File Sharing
File sharing is the single greatest element of the internet, it has opened up new musical genres and artists that we may have never known.
Many people argue endlessly about the pros and cons of file sharing. Each side of the debate certain makes their point.
Beginner DJs often have the hard choice: buy or download their music.
The ability to quickly grab a track to spin is almost impossible to pass up but we’re always in conflict with our morals as music lovers.
Let’s explore further, the pros and cons of file sharing.
Pros Of File Sharing
Great Exposure To The Independent Artists
Without a doubt, the single greatest benefit of file sharing is the exposure independent artists can gain.
Without file sharing, many great artists would never have reached the success in which they enjoy today.
As a music lover, file sharing allows us to dive deeper into discovering new and old music. The further we go, the more obscure (and awesome) the music becomes.
The artists which fringe on the outside of the charts can finally begin to gain recognition for their great work, a definitive pro of file sharing.
Creative Control
Artists that decide to release their music on their own gains the ability to have complete creative control.
When most artists sign to a major record label, they give up a lot of their creative control such as ownership of their back catalog.
With file sharing, independent artists can release tracks for free and keep all of the rewards and spot light. The only downside of releasing your own music is that you don’t have the same promotional and marketing campaign that a major record label can produce.
Promotion aside, file sharing is the new form of music distribution. Artists can create work to their standards and creative flow, then share it with the world.
Setting Your Own Prices
Another great pro of file sharing is the ability for artists to set their own prices.
It’s hard to sell an album these days at the traditional price of $15 or so when we can easily go online and snag it for a few cents a track or completely free.
Artists that embrace file sharing can set their own prices and receive all the profit – instead of major labels taking a large cut.
Cons Of File Sharing
Some Artists Get Hurt
Unfortunately, not all file sharing can be good for certain artists.
Sure, most mainstream bands will complain when their new CD isn’t doing so well but when you have millions of fans, it makes up for it.
For the indie artist, if you have a stable fan base of 10,000 and the majority of them download your album, you’re pretty much SOL.
I am all for free music but I’m also for supporting artists. If the artists can’t make a living through their music (and it forces them back into the 9 to 5 life) we may never be able to hear great tracks from them again.
Some artists do get hurt, others take it in full stride, either way, sometimes file sharing can be a con.
It Hurts The Good Labels Too
Just like the artists, many great labels are hit hard by file sharing.
I don’t care if a major label goes down because they almost always release shit music but what I do care about are the indie labels that need the album to do well so they can keep going.
Recently Twisted almost sunk into bankruptcy due to file sharing. The newest Shpongle album was leaked early and crippled much of the overall sales. With Twisted so close to bankruptcy, it was do or die with the release.
Luckily the release was well received but many labels aren’t so lucky. Much like the artists, I find it’s important to support the music you love.
The Quality Often Sucks
The quality that I’m talking about isn’t the quality of music, it’s the quality of the format.
Most of the time MP3′s are incorrectly tagged, compressed to hell and are all kinds of disorganized.
With proper releases, you get full audio clarity, structure, art work and more. With file sharing, you get some song rip from a kid who encoded it at 128 – yuck!
The Perfect Balance Of File Sharing
It’s selfish for DJs to spin tracks they do not buy. You may argue that you’re giving the artist exposure but at the same time you are reaping all of the rewards by being paid to play an artist’s music you never bothered to buy.
DJs that don’t buy their tracks set up a vicious cycle in which the artist can no longer produce music regularily, in turn giving the DJ nothing to spin.
There is a perfect balance to this equation.
As a beginner DJ, if you do use illegal music, you should do your best to help promote and have others learn about the artists you spin.
With every mix you release, give a heads up to the listener to where they can find this music, identify the artist and help promote them as well.
Spinning free music is another great method where everyone benefits. Many artists release free music. Spinning this music and promoting the artist will keep the spirit alive.
We’ve all spun music we’ve downloaded through file sharing networks, that’s just a part of our internet culture now but whenever it’s possible, try to keep that perfect balance.
What do you think about file sharing?
