The Future of Music Consumption Is Rife with Arguments, Apparently

So, some (old but) big news on the Interwebs regard an NPR intern basically confessing that almost all the music she has on her computer wasn't purchased. She talks about how she works at radio stations, ripping the CDs that surround her, and ripping albums she borrows from friends. And of course, the bugaboo, she downloads whatever she can’t get a hold of. The comments were flooded with people claiming she and many others like her are nothing more than thieves; while some defended her and called for everyone to get with the future. So, our future is no longer buying our music?

I don’t have a problem with people loaning their CDs out to people. I do that all the time with my sister and my friends. Didn't people do this with vinyl records and cassette tapes? Look, I may be a quarter-century-old, but I know this phenomenon ain't new.

Before I go further, I need to admit to my class privilege: I still live with my family, so I don’t pay much in rent and bills. With this, I’m able to buy a lot of my music. The only time I download free stuff is bootlegs and long out-of-print albums that are VERY HARD to find (e.g. the albums are only available on vinyl from Japan [oh hai Plastics]). Because I can afford to buy my music, it's likely why I take issue to those who download everything for free. I like to support the musicians whenever I can, even if it means that the record company takes a larger cut. It ain't the band's fault that's the way things are.

I do have some issues with people that admit to downloading everything, citing that the record company gets most of the cut anyway. Okay great idea, let's deprive the musicians what little they would've received anyway! F*** the establishment! This is a seriously flawed argument. Yeah, the music industry is seriously broken as all get out and is refusing to change with the rest of the world. That's no excuse to basically just steal and be proud of it or think you're making a change in the industry. The entitlement is quite awful, frankly. Most of these musicians aren't working for free. They need food and health insurance like the rest of us.

Yet, let's take a gander at the other side, those who like to buy their music and have physical copies. Once again, it all goes back to the money. They have it, therefore they spend it. They see these youngsters (including myself) and think we are nothing more than greedy and entitled jerks. Well, this attitude is quite entitled and greedy, to be honest. So yeah, no one wins here.

I guess my main problem with this whole situation is the entitlement. The old-schoolers with their infinite monies and the new-schoolers with their l33t downloading and torrenting skills. No one is admitting to those hard facts. The older folks don’t want to talk about class and money privileges, it’s just easier to call the kids immature and entitled. As for my generation, we have computers and infinite resources for free music, we don’t want to consider that yeah it is still stealing no matter how we attempt to explain it away, it’s just easier to call the older folks behind the times and not willing to accept reality.

And you know what? The main villain in all this, a corrupt music system, is still winning. If we continue to be at war with each other, we will never see past our own prejudices and when we find ourselves with stricter Internet privileges and exorbitant priced albums, we have no one to blame but ourselves. (Well, that, plus the price of living and paying wages are so skewed now that it warrants a comedic sketch.)

So essentially? Everyone, put down your arms. Own up to your problems and work together. We can have a future full of cheap and free music if we just shut up about the other side for a minute. Because if this economy doesn't recover soon, we all won't have money for anything and the argument about free music will be the least of our problems.