Illegal downloading: friend of enemy?

The subject of my blog will be the discussion or illegal downloading is a friend or an enemy for artists.

The first reaction would be to say illegal downloading is the enemy.

Which is a natural reaction because there are a lot of problems with it.

The biggest problem is that the artists don’t get the money they should get from selling records because nobody is paying for the records anymore.

But if you think about it, there are also advantages; 2 big advantages to be specific.

The first advantage is the fact that it’s free. 20 years ago people went to shops to buy records but because there were so many new releases every week people had to choose between different records if they didn’t had enough money.

This problem doesn’t exist anymore because everything is free.

The second advantage is the availability of the music.

Most bands that release a debut album don’t release the record in the whole world because it’s too expensive for the labels.

Because of the Internet and the illegal downloading; people from Europe, Asia, America, … can download your record or a track from the record even if the record is only released in Belgium.

Because of these 2 advantages you can gain fans from around the whole world and this can mean the big break true for a band. Look at some perfect examples like Arctic Monkeys, Lily Allen or Kate Nash who had build up a fan base after they uploaded some tracks to Myspace.

Still it’s a never-ending discussion, illegal downloading friend or enemy. But one thing is for sure, there is nothing that we can do about it, I’m afraid illegal downloading is here to stay.