blog #2 p2p file sharing

In “Piracy is progressive taxation” the author Tim O’reilly brings up some valid points. He says that in many ways peer to peer file sharing is helpful to artists because it makes widely available what might have remained obscure. I believe that he is correct in that but has a somewhat twisted view of it because he is speaking from a writer’s point of view, not a musician’s.

At one time (when I had a bit more time on my hands) I downloaded many albums for free. The big question is would I have bought them otherwise? The answer is I’m not sure. There are definitely cases where people get free music that they otherwise would have bought, but many other cases where the ease of getting a file over the internet for free has brought many artists many fans who would otherwise not have known about their music. Many of these fans obtained through free music downloads will potentially end up buying some of that artists albums in the future, and even more likely go to see them in concert, which as I understand it is where the artists make the most money anyways.

As a musician myself, I would be proud to see my music being shared. However if I ever got really big I would probably see it as a hindrance to sales. Peer to peer sharing is great for small time artists who might otherwise never break out of obscurity, but I would say that it definitely hurts big time record labels. This may have the effect of decentralizing the music industry from just the mainstream music from major labels only available at the corporate owned Sam Goody at the mall.

In his article Tim O’reilly seems to imply that peer to peer sharing can only help the media industry, but I think this is untrue. He is a writer and does not face nearly the same situation. A book can be shared online but the physical aspect of a book is still very important. I believe most people still prefer a book with paper pages that you can carry with you anywhere to staring at a computer screen for hours on end (maybe it’s just me). When you download a song you can play it on your computer or burn it to a cd, put it on your IPod or any other format and it works and sounds just as good as if you had bought the cd at the record store.

Ultimately, peer to peer sharing is not likely to stop anytime soon and the media industry is just going to have to learn to live it. It’s true that p2p is progressive taxation since it could help an artist find their way to the limelight but then eventually tap into their potential profits. I think most artists would consider it a fair trade.