Artists Voice Their Opinion On Downloading Music (Illegal Downloading Feature)
Monday, 01 October 2012
Written by Heather McDaid
Illegal downloading is an issue that's plagued the music industry for years, growing rapidly as technology advanced. Though millions worldwide choose to acquire their music at the click of a button, there are serious moves to eradicate the issue through clamp downs in the law - an estimated date appears to be 2014. What methods the government use to crack down on this are yet to be seen, whether or not they will succeed in this endeavour is debatable, but what do those behind the music - the bands, the artists - make of the issue at hand?
Over the last year or so, Stereoboard has posed the question to a number of musicians and it proves that it can be a double-edged sword. Some find it an aberration to music, others find it something unavoidable you have to work around and then there's those who try not to think about it, considering downloading an issue that will never go away.
"I used to be mad at it," admits Tobin of Papa Roach (read full interview here), "but there's really nothing you can do about it. You've got to try embrace it and work out ways to sell records. We want to get the music out, but we have to be more conscious because it takes money to put out a record, it takes money to put on a show, it takes money for this to work. It was easier to do that ten years ago and that's just the truth. Now people don't really buy records, they're more interested in singles or downloading it from some free torrent site or whatever. You've just got to be like 'Hey, that's fine' and we then try find ways to make it more interesting and make the music better so people want to support the band with what we do."
Ex-Hollywood Undead member Deuce (read full interview here) shared similar sentiments, noting, "I would rather people buy the album and singles and videos, I can't always control that stuff, but I hope my fans support me by buying it instead of downloading it for free.”
Paul, of Irish rockers The Answer (read full interview here), had this to say: "It’s a double-edged sword for us. I know growing up, I enjoyed going to a record store and finding the CD. Sometimes you wouldn’t find it, but then you’d order it and have to wait another week and you’d find something else. You took it home and you’d maybe look at the inlay card on the way home and you’d start to get excited about it. I guess it was almost a spiritual kind of event if you were very into music; then you got home, you sat down and put it on and you listened to every track. You’d look at the artwork, read the booklet, see who produced it and who they thanked. I think that’s a real big part of the experience and that’s almost gone, which I don’t like.
"Also, I think music has become very cheap because it’s so easy to find anything you want now just at a click. I think people aren't as precious about it as they used to be and it affects sales a lot. I mean that part of it I don’t like. The upside of it is, if you’re a kid now you can find anything you want at any time of day. I remember thinking about this when I was like 11 or 12, I was like one day you’d be able to have a computer and you’d just type in Motley Crue or Led Zeppelin and you’d just find that record, that bootleg, that live thing or whatever and download it there and then, you wouldn’t have to go to a shop. It was like BladeRunner or something, this would be amazing!
"That’s the way it is now. I think that side of it is fantastic. If you hear a track and you’re out in a club, you find out what it is and you can go home and have it straight away. It really is fantastic. It has put everything on a state of flux as in how you’re going to make money from it. I think people are probably going to more concerts because of it and another upside of that is that the money is in the live gigs. More people are starting to go out again which is good for a band like us who loves to play live, but it’s up and down. I think in a few years when the industry works out how to make it a bit more stable, it’ll be just like it used to be."
Biff Byford of Saxon (read full interview here) has seen the industry change over the last few decades and explained he felt the digitisation was taking away from the experience overall, and that downloading would affect more than just the musician at hand, explaining, "I think one of the problems is people are always striving for something new. Engineers and programmers are always trying to find the next big thing to make millions with a new mp3 player, or Skype, or Facebook; everybody’s trying to bring a new thing to the front. I think with our genre people really like the package, they really like the album cover, the packaging, the lyrics... It’s very difficult to get the same on download packaging. I think our music is doing okay at the moment but I think they are trying to make everything completely downloadable. I hope not because a lot of people will lose their jobs..."
Limp Bizkit's own Wes Borland (read full interview here) has seen a clear differentiation between the number of fans who have heard his new album with Black Light Burns and the sales figures. He says, "I think that we're living in a time where things were really bad for albums sales for a while and I think we're slowly swinging back to a place where people can make a living off of records and also where records aren't too expensive. I'm glad that we have things like Spotify and the Genius Feature on iTunes, all these different things that are like "If you like this, you might like this" ideas. Now that music is so accessible everywhere online, I feel like the environment is over-saturated with so many bands that it's difficult to sift through so many albums of music. The amount of people that have heard my new Black Light record, for instance, are way more people than the sales figures show have bought the record. Infinitely more people have heard the entire thing without buying it. That's kind of frustrating but that's the world we're living in right now."
Will Francis, Aiden frontman, was far more scathing in his views on the issue, yet understands that it's also down to the times that we live in, explaining, "What sucks about downloading is that people don't really value what the artist has done as a collective whole for a piece of art rather than just a part of a record. Art is the process of painstakingly going over shit like what song to put into which order so that when the listener is giving it a go, it flows into the next song at the right pace and the right tempo. I think that downloading and the internet and iPods has really kind of killed that spirit and has killed that sparkle, that glimmer of those aspects of putting a record together. It's taken that piece out of the puzzle in the art of making a record.
"I'm not a big fan of downloading and I don't download shit but at the same time, it's a generational thing. Kids who have the internet and go online share music and stuff with other kids. This is just normal behaviour. I mean, when I was a kid you'd have to go buy records and go buy CDs. You'd wait until it came out and go to the record store and hopefully get it if it was still stocked. You know, now you can get any record, anytime, anywhere, from anywhere on the internet."
These are just a few of the views on downloading that we've come across, but even from here it's clear that it's an issue that bands have to deal with to make a living from their art. As said, it's unclear as to how the issue can be tackled from a legal point of view on such a large scale, but it's fair to assume it will always be an issue on some level.
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
We don't run any advertising! Our editorial content is solely funded by lovely people like yourself using Stereoboard's listings when buying tickets for live events. To keep supporting us, next time you're looking for concert, festival, sport or theatre tickets, please search for "Stereoboard". It costs you nothing, you may find a better price than the usual outlets, and save yourself from waiting in an endless queue on Friday mornings as we list ALL available sellers!
Over the last year or so, Stereoboard has posed the question to a number of musicians and it proves that it can be a double-edged sword. Some find it an aberration to music, others find it something unavoidable you have to work around and then there's those who try not to think about it, considering downloading an issue that will never go away. 
![Bad Omens Detail 26-Track 'Concrete Jungle [The OST]' Project, Share New Track The Drain](http://cdn1.stereoboard.com/images/artistimages/50/tn_bad-omens.jpg)
