Sharing music files is fab, don't abuse it

Comment Give a dog a Bono

Whatever views you have on piracy, no one should have the right to snoop on your Internet activity because you might be doing something criminal. Of all people, Bono should know this, but instead he even used ‘China’s ignoble effort to suppress online dissent’ as an example of how online content could be tracked to stop file sharing.

At the same time, though, file sharers need to be aware of the consequences of their actions. You can’t just laugh it off and say ‘ah, but they said home taping was killing music, and it didn’t – it’s the same this time.’ It’s not the same this time. Making a compilation tape of tracks for a friend on a poor-sounding single cassette is completely different to making your whole music collection available as decent-sounding MP3s to a whole world of anonymous strangers. The scale of worldwide file sharing is a much greater threat than anything presented by the cassette tape. Likewise, any dislike you have for large recording companies, rubbish new pop acts or even just Bono is no justification for stealing the work of genuinely talented artists who’ve yet to establish a fan base.

Not everyone can fund their musical career from the sales of gig tickets, and this lazy argument is becoming increasingly tired. The experience we’ve developed in recording music is now incredible, and we need to hold on to these skills if we’re going to continue to produce quality music to listen to at home. These are skills that we could easily lose if people continue to treat recorded music as a worthless commodity.

After all, what’s the point in learning to become a sound engineer if there end up being few jobs in the profession. Plus, budding solo musicians and studio artists are going to find little motivation from the prospect of spending the rest of their lives living with their parents while they record their music for free. For many people, music is fine as just a hobby, but others find a great deal of motivation from the prospect of being able to do it for a living. I don’t have an easy answer to the problems presented by mass file sharing.

It’s easy to get on your high horse and justify it in all sorts of ways, but these excuses sound to me like the cries of a child who’s been told that he has to save up if he wants more sweets. The music business needs to wake and realise that it can’t force the Internet to act like a physical media shop, but we also need to play our part by supporting recording artists and keeping recorded music alive as a profession.