NPR Intern Rekindles Debate about Paying for Music
An NPR intern on the “All Songs Considered” program posted recently about how she has 11,000 songs in iTunes, but has purchased only about 15 CDs in her life. Her post prompted a firestorm of responses — pro and con, interestingly — and NPR’s Robin Hilton links to a number of them in this blog post. Most notable is the “Letter to Emily White” from David Lowery, a songwriter and lecturer at the University of Georgia’s music business program, but it’s worth reading a number of the articles Hilton references.
David Lowery isn't just "a songwriter." He was/is in Camper Van Beethoven. But maybe that means more to me than to most people.
The NPR piece mentioned that, though his letter did not, so I had no sense of how relevant the specific group might be.
There's a debate? It's stealing no matter how much you try to justify it.
Ah, that's exactly why there's a debate. "Stealing" implies that the item being lifted is gone, such that the owner suffers a loss and no one else can enjoy the benefits of the item. With perfect copies of digital products, that's clearly not the case.
Illicit copying is obviously a problem, and is obviously wrong, but the fact that it is so prevalent shows that there's something off-kilter in the system - David Lowery makes some excellent points in that direction.
What about music that will NEVER be released on CD? I have old 78s and 8-tracks that were never released on CD so I can't purchase them.