File-Sharing Does Not Equal File-Stealing

Downloading a few MP3s off the internet does not make me less inclined to purchase music…just the opposite. Have you actually listened to a CD of your stolen/shared MP3s? The quality sucks! Sometimes it is so bad, that it actually reminds me of tapes. You know…cassette tapes? (For those of you Gen-Y or younger: tapes are these rectangular plastic things that we used to use for listening to music before there were CDs but after there were records.) And tapes suck. Remember that time when your cassette deck finally ate your favorite “radio mix”…the tape coming out, unspooling as you try to remove it from your boom box; you - desparately attempting to rewind the tape back onto the spools with your pinky, but secretly knowing in your heart of hearts that it was over? Ah yes, tapes. I don’t miss them at all. And for all the convenience (and price!) of getting something for nothing through your trusty Gnutella client, I say you still get what you pay for when it comes to file-sharing. For example, I just burned a whole CD of Blink 182 songs. Songs I got via “sharing.” And now I am practically salivating to have the actual album. Whether you download and pay for a song or walk into a store and purchase the CD itself, what you are getting is quality. And while quality may not matter so much as you rock out to Smashing Pumpkins while sitting at your desk checking your email, it sure does matter as you fly down I-75 at 80 MPH on the last leg of a 10-hour road trip or the first leg of your morning commute. Quality matters! Not with everyone, every band, every time. But when you really really really like the music, you go the extra mile to own a good copy of it. And feel free to share that copy with 1000 of your closest friends!

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