[Dirtbag59]

Originally Posted by firstdown

So when you illegally down load a song and the song writer does not get paid for the sale he is not loosing anything? Then times this by the millions of people down loading music and its adds up to allot more then $100.

Artist are barely loosing anything to begin with. They're better off getting their music out there and encouraging people to see them live then they are getting $23 (divided 4 or 5 ways) for every $1,000 sold (assuming they won't get deducted for their "advance") It's widely accepted that touring is where the money is for musicians. Not record sales. Before they needed record companies to get their name out there so people would play to see them live.

So by supporting the record industry and going against piracy you are effectively taking money out of the musicians pocket and putting it back into the pockets of the suits that like to sue 12 year old kids for downloading songs.
RIAA Accounting: Why Even Major Label Musicians Rarely Make Money From Album Sales | Techdirt

Of course, it's actually even more ridiculous than this report makes it out to be. Going back ten years ago, Courtney Love famously laid out the details of recording economics, where the label can make $11 million... and the actual artists make absolutely nothing. It starts off with a band getting a massive $1 million advance, and then you follow the money:

And that explains why huge megastars like Lyle Lovett have pointed out that he sold 4.6 million records and never made a dime from album sales. It's why the band 30 Seconds to Mars went platinum and sold 2 million records and never made a dime from album sales. You hear these stories quite often.

Concert Tours Are Where the Real Money Is - ABC News

Performers frequently moan about never seeing a royalty check from their record label, no matter how many discs they sell. But a top concert draw can take home 35 percent of the night's gate and up to 50 percent of the dollar flow from merchandise sold at the show. The labels get none of it.

And of course the RIAA, the cartel that benefits from the sale of music isn't exactly innocent in all this. Remember when I told you that they brought this on themselves.
BBC NEWS | Business | Music groups settle on CD price-fixing

The world's five largest music companies and three biggest music retailers have agreed to pay $143m (£91m) to settle a two year CD price-fixing case, although they would not admit any wrong-doing.

The case was launched in the US in August 2000 as a lawsuit supported by most US states alleging that the music industry had artificially inflated CD prices between 1995 and 2000.

So it's alright for Record companies to engage in collusion and violate anti-trust laws to make money (before Napster mind you) but if some high school kid downloads music he's a criminal?

Anti-Piracy Movie Ads Caught Using Pirated Music - Entertainment News - Pedestrian TV

We all know how the rest goes, because thanks to the Motion Picture Association Of America and their foreign associates, every time you hire a DVD, you have to sit through this ad before you get to the main menu. But in what must be the most delicious slice of irony served this year, it has just been discovered that that the music used to soundtrack this 50-second pain in the ass is actually stolen.

The ironic thing about all of this though is the fact that I still support artist by actually buying their music on Itunes. I'm always sure to buy a gift card every month to buy songs and download TV shows like How I Met Your Mother. On top of that I have a Netflix account.