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Digital Audio Insider is David Harrell's blog about the economics of music and other digital content. I write from the perspective of a musican who has self-released four albums with the indie rock band the Layaways.

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June 29, 2012

Quick Thoughts on the NPR Blog Post, David Lowery, Etc.
by David Harrell
If you're a reader of this blog, then you probably saw last week's NPR blog post, David Lowery's response, and Bob Lefsetz's response to Lowery.

A few (belated) quick thoughts:

1. Lowery and Lefsetz are both right -- it's a shame that more people don't pay for their music and that everyone else in the food chain, except for the artist, is making money, yet we're never going to put the free music genie back in the bottle. I'm not saying Spotify is the solution, but the compensation model/trend will never revert to what we saw in previous decades.

2. I don't get Lefsetz's contention that Lowery just needs to make better music. Whether or not you like the guy and his music, it's safe to say that Lowery has had more commercial and critical success than 99.9% of the folks who have every picked up an instrument.

3. But what I found most interesting about the NPR post was that the author makes a big deal about that fact that she didn't "illegally download" most of her music, but then lists all of the ways she has acquired free music, none of which resulted in compensation to artists.

That's not to pick on Emily White -- I've made the same "no P2P" claim myself, though I've paid for the majority of my music. What's fascinating to me is how we (music fans, myself included) often condemn file sharing sites, yet generally have fewer qualms with other methods of non-compensated music acquisition such as ripping music from promo CDs, discs borrowed from a friend or public library, etc.

There's obviously a difference in scale -- there's no limit to the amount of times a file can be downloaded online, while swapping hard drives with friends or making mix CDs and playlists have inherent practical limitations. And who wants to be a complete hardass and say that making a mixtape/playlist for a friend or two is a crime? I doubt that many artists complain because fans like their music so much that they feel compelled to share it with their friends in that manner.

Still, in the end, should there be a moral distinction -- is all non-compensated music ownership equally wrong or does scale matter, making these other methods misdemeanors relative to the evil of file sharing?

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