Forums / Discussion / Serious Debate

Grooveshark, a site where music is played and shared free of cost, has gone down for copyright.

The effect of music…?
The costs of music…?
There is the "library argument" in which music is compared to books.
Does paying for music discourage exploration and variety? Is this significant?
Devil's advocate is much appreciated. More questions are appreciated.

idk what grooveshark is, but stealing music is bad. If you want to hear a song, check out youtube. Like the song? buy it.

Whoever made that site to be shut down uses a logic chip not compatible to common sense. Remember all the financial losses major labels suffered because they wanted their music to be taken off the Internet instead of using it as a platform for distribution or promotion?

Also, copyright law is one of the most obsolete ones.

More questions are appreciated

If I like music I'd really want to support the artist behind it. But what about music that is simply not easily accessible, or not available at all?

For example, I'd want to buy some CD's of O-Life Japan, a Touhou circle that sells their albums at conventions. There are a few sparse CD's available on eBay, but the profit wouldn't go to the artists themselves, the shipping costs are high, and the albums I'd really wan't to get for myself, aren't even available.

Another example would be an english indie band named Bôa. I'd want to get their album "Twilight" as a CD, but that album is only available for digital download on a site where I really don't want to make an account or handle money at. I don't want to download it, but I would buy it as a CD immediately.

If an artist or label wishes to use the internet as a platform for distribution is their choice. Nobody is entitled to something just because they can't access it from the comfort of their own chair.

I don't have much of an opinion on this, but I think that Copyright Law is extremely outdated and doesn't reflect modern times. Youtube is honestly extremely inconsistent with its copyright system anyways – it has the ability to prevent direct downloads from websites that convert youtube videos to MP3s but they just don't with most videos, making the whole thing seem unnecessary.

All in all, I don't really hate people who pirate their music, I do too sometimes, but usually I just listen to it through youtube. I purchase albums that I like, because I want hard copies of them. To be honest you'll oftentimes find music on albums that aren't really posted online in their original studio form anyways. For example, I currently own 4 non-compilation Supertramp albums and I would reckon that outside of Breakfast in America there are only like 3 songs from the others that are available online in the studio format. Some albums have NO songs online from them… So if you do like an artist or band, I recommend buying their music because oftentimes most people won't host the more obscure songs, even though they might be excellent too. Plus, hard copies are cool to own shades

Honestly it's kind of unfortunate since the record company still gets the majority of the cut…

I don't understand why anyone would buy digital copies though unless there was no other way to get the song.