I think nearly everyone of my generation will agree - the big record industry deserves filesharing. It's had it coming for the past 30 years or more. Actually decent bands are never able to get really big. Shoddy trends have been the rule of thumb since way before today's demographic was ever born - from the disco and overblown stadium ballad rock of our parents' generation to the nu-metal, boy bands, and manufactured gangsta rap of today's generation. Sure, every once in a while, the mainstream will proceed to jump on some interesting underground trend - and then choke it to death. Just look at grunge ten years ago, or punk today.
But then, along came computers, and with them a whole new array of opportunities for the music industry. Suddenly, information could be transfered immediately and directly to the people, instead of having to wait months upon months to build up promotion. Little bands now had the power to record something themselves using new applications on their computer like ProTools, and immediately upload it to their website so someone a continent away could discover their music, without either party having to shell out. The music industry could have utilised filesharing long before Napster was a household word, but they stuck with their outdated ways and lost out forever. iTunes, E-music, and whatever other pay-to-download services there are out there are now just too little, too late. If the music industry had changed with the times fast enough, all these free filesharing services may have never achieved popularity beyond small groups of hackers and pirates.
I for one believe the music industry's main concern is not lost profit. They still make millions off the likes of Britney Spears and Avril Lavigne, and those annoying ringtones you hear apparantly rake in gobs and gobs of cash. The artists complaining about filesharing like Metallica and Destiny's Child are not going to starve to death if too many kids download their next single. I think their main concern is their new loss of control over what people are listening too.
Think about it. Before, it was only music hobbyists who could name their favourite indie label. The average person only cared about music enough to know what the local Top 40 radio and music television stations were playing. Now, anyone with the brains to Google "KaZaA," "Soulseek," or "Morpheus" has access to almost any band from around the planet. The music industry no longer has total control over what music you're exposed to. Many of my current favourite bands, like the Nekromantix, The Explosion, or Social Distortion I'm sure I would have never liked had I not had filesharing at my fingertips. As I type this out, I'm listening to a punk band from Osaka, Japan. I may have no clue what they're singing about, but it's one awesome song nonetheless. Do you think MTV would ever play their video? How else would I know about them, when they don't even have a distribution deal for their records in Canada? I wouldn't even know what the word "psychobilly" means if I didn't have filesharing.
Filesharing also allows fans to "test run" bands they think they might like. 90% of the bands I like today I learned the names of because I ran into someone on the Internet with similar music tastes who also liked that band. I can then download a couple of their songs and find out if I can get into them. And it's not uncommon for little bands to list their influences so you know roughly what they sound like. Soulseek even recommends bands you might like. You simply type in a list of your favourite bands, it finds other users with similar music tastes, then spits out a list of bands they like that you don't have listed. Big record labels don't encourage you to check out bands beyond the scope of their label.
Major labels no longer have that power to limit your perspective of good bands to bands that are just endless rip-offs of one band you sort of like. If not for filesharing, I probably wouldn't even like music today. I would be sick of Blink-182 rip-offs within a few months, and when the pop-punk trend had run its course, be uninterested in the new emo trend and stop listening to music for the next half-dozen years. But instead, I was given the power to check out older punk bands and branch out from there. When you live in the middle of suburbia, a place completely devoid of cool radio stations or indie record stores, there aren't many musical options if you don't have filesharing.
And then, when that moment comes where I find a good lesser-known band, guess what? I actually go out and buy their record. I really only burn CDs if a) I'm burning a mix of rarities or b) it's a band who's CD is unavailable where I live. So really, major labels are actually making money off me because of filesharing. After all, many of the bands I have gotten into *are* on major labels - they just happen to not get airplay for some reason. And indie records are making infinitely more money off me, because I probably wouldn't own a single independent record if not for filesharing.
So when I hear some exec with more cash hidden under his bed than I'll ever see in my life whining about how filesharing is like shoplifting, I can't help but what to punch him. To me, filesharing is no different from getting to listen to records in the store, just done in the convenience of your own home and with a much broader selection than the listening stations at Best Buy or CD World give you. When I go to concerts, buy merch, or *gasp* buy the CD, I'm putting money in that guy's fat fat pocket. That is, if he has a decent band on his roster. And if he doesn't, that's no problem but his own. Maybe that exec should work on that instead of releasing a Britney Spears' greatest hits album. The indie labels probably enjoy the amount of money I'm willing to put into them, and I actually don't feel guilty for paying out to them.
You know, I do really want to help the artists. So why is it that when you buy a CD, the actual artist gets less than a dollar of that money, and the rest goes to their soulless record company? This is just one of many reasons why record companies deserve filesharing, and have for a good long time. Maybe it's high time they looked at their own rosters and started promoting interesting bands who can make more than one good song with an album's worth of filler, instead of whining about how some guy in his parents' basement is crippling them.