How many folks here - or in the world for that matter - actually PURCHASE ALL OF THEIR MUSIC.
I do!
Quick, PK or MF, I need a "patting myself on the back" smiley.
"T-shirts, GOOD! Napster, BAD!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS6udST6lbE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvYYqRefhuM
For what it's worth, I like Neil Fallon's take:
Q: When we last talked to you a couple of years ago this was a hot topic, and I forget if it was you or another artist that said when a technological advance comes along, it’s just kind of like a flat tax, it just affects everyone across the board at the same percentage, and so you can’t really get too bent out of shape as an artist when everyone else is in that same boat with you.
A: It does piss me off when I hear people lamenting the fact that, oh now bands have to go out and play music to make a living. Like fvck off! That’s the whole point. I mean records… If you consider the entire history of culture and then music, records are still a brand new technology. Live music has been around for tens of thousands of years. And that should be the joy of it, performing your music for other people. And to act as if this is your cross to bear because of file sharing is, I think, reprehensible.
So we’ve been kind of insulated by that, because we’ve always been a touring band, and it’s not as if we saw our ticket sales plummet when Napster came along.
Q: Did you see it go the other way? Did ticket sales increase?
A: I think so. It opened… It made it easy for people to find out about the band. If we had been a platinum selling band I’m sure it would have affected us terribly but we’re, like many bands, we’re only going to appeal to so many people. It used to be that the independent record shop was your only oracle for that kind of stuff. And now you can have your independent record shop right there on your desk.
