I would argue that it is more prevelant then four years ago. I know a lot of young people who were 12-14 four years ago who are totally downloading any music they have. Sure the economy is having some effect, but really, that's only been the last year. More and more the youngsters, who are the bulk of the music buyers, are looking for absolutely free music.

btu 4 years ago, it was decidedly easier to find and download thingas, you had more avenues to work from, if one filesharing prog didnt' tield results, you hit another, or IRC, or got into bit-torrent, or got involved with some buddies and an FTP server.....nowadays, the options arent' as numerous....plus, how many of the 16-18 year old crowd from 4 years ago have suddenly discovered that the realities and pressures of Adult Life leave them less time to hunt around and find music?


I'm more than willing to bet that...overall......the rates are pretty close to a wash.

Quote my teenage niece, "why would you pay for music when you can download it for free?"

That is why the music industry, bands and labels alike, are suffering financially. That is the mindset of teenagers and many young adults now. It's not stealing. It's there for the taking. No one is stopping them. There are no alarms like in a store. It's free, so take it.

Seventh Angel, 750,000 downloads on just one site, yet under 1,000 physical copies sold? Seems a bit unbalanced to me.

I think that there are two arguments going on here: The state of the music industry and stealing.

Stealing is wrong no matter how anyone tries to angle it, and it hurts the musicians - that's a given.

At the same time the music industry is taking a big hit, but I don't think the weight solely resides on illegal downloading. I've listened to some of the samples of the music mentioned, and I wouldn't even download it ilegally (no offense to the creators, I just have picky tastes). The music biz has had a long history of screwing over musicians and cramming stuff down peoples thoats. I watched a documentary onetime about how the music companies stole a lot of the rights of black soul musicians. Maybe now they are getting their just deserts? Like a lot of things in life, the status quo is getting shaken up and people are scared. Eventually a new model will be born and it will work itself out. Histroy has shown us this again and again in all facets of life. It's the ones who keep their wits about them and soldier on that will come out ahead.

I will add to this, that I do believe that the christian scene is just as guilty of putting out absolute crap. Because pickings were slim for a long time, people bought whatever they could (I didn't). I think peoples tastes have changed and broadened, so the money is not there like it used to be. Teens are usually the ones flush with cash, and metal (as we know it) is not their market. Old farts like me have a house, kids, etc that take up way more of my money. There are lots of CDs I'd love to get, but you better make it worth every drop of my money, for me to purchase it.

I would have to disagree.......teens are usually not the ones "flush with cash".

I truly believe people are downloading because there is so much music available that you couldn't possibly buy it all. That doesn't make it right, but I'm sure it is a reason. I buy roughly a CD a week, but that doesn't scatch the surface of what I would buy if I had the resources. Personally I choose not to download anymore, but I have in the past (and have destroyed and deleted all my illegal albums).

Not to mention that once people have a taste of free music, it would be hard to go back. Just tonight a mate offered me mp3's of all Led Zeppelins material. This guy claims to be a big fan of theirs, yet he is willingly and openly sharing the music illegally. I respectfully declined, but the fact is that millions of people are doing this and they see nothing wrong with it. To suggest downloading and burning hasn't caused lower CD sales is absurd. For every person who buys music after downloading, I reckon there's another 10 who don't.

The real question is how will the record industry cope? It is impossible to know, and I can only guess. I tend to think bands will become more and more independent. More and more bands will make their music free and start relying on the income generated from live shows to get by. We may see a lot of one album or EP projects that never go anywhere because they simply won't sell, and the band will throw in the towel. I don't think hard copy music will die - it will become a niche market. 1000 physical sales will be a very impressive amount indeed for a Christian band. I tend to think the albums will be free online, with things like bonus dvd's and cool packaging (vinyl?) coming with hard copies. Bands that are able to invest in good production and packaging will do better, and those bands will be the ones who can generate a solid income form their live performances.

Just my 2 cents worth on the matter, but I will finish with this - buy a legal download or hard copy!!!!

Very good post.

BAH!
...on the other hand, something like this could work to our mutual benefit. For example:

Had file sharing and burning multiple copies of an album to give out to friends been an option when the New Kids On The Block released their first album, we could have all banded together and burned and shared MILLIONS of copies of that album, preventing any need to buy the album, bringing the record company to think "Wow, these guys really suck", and deny the band any more record deals, thus saving me and countless others hundreds of hours of pain and misery due to my younger sister overplaying both Hangin' Tough and Step By Step endlessly for two years...

...hope you all got a chuckle out of my lame attempt at levity...carry on...

I reckon Record labels and bands should stop making cds and mp3s and only release Vinyl and cassettes.
surely this format would'nt transfer in the best quality to mp3 and would destroy the theifing.

Well that's a joke!.........just copy it to the computer from high quality tape deck and or turntable and hey presto!....good cd burn in context of the sort of quality mp3's give. Who would notice the differance.

Sorry. Meant to type 7,500, not 750,000. That's a really bad typo.