Sopa/pipa

[Fkeu'itan]

In response to the poster (picture poster, not person ) I wouldn't do something like that. I'm more than happy to buy music from the little-known artists and small one-man record companies where I find most of my favourite artists, simply because without that flow of money, they wouldn't exist.

With regards to the "Piracy = profit" idea, where people may illegally download a number of tracks and lead on to buying a full album, that is actually a case in point for myself. I often listen to full and illegally uploaded versions of the latest tracks on youtube, then, if I like them enough, go on to buy the vinyl version of them (and trust me, new vinyl these days is expensive - it comes out at around £5 per track). However, with regards to the artists themselves, they will often release free music - single tracks that they can't get a release for, or that they feel are too 'experimental' to release on hard copy. Alternatively, they start up a podcast series which has some of their most cutting-edge work contained within, but imited to either 3 minutes' worth or even just a prototype version of the track. This - I think - encourages people to buy their fully published tracks from them as you begin to feel much more of a rapport with the artist and appreciate their fan service.

Rather than acknowleding that stealing hard work from these people is fine, perhaps it would be better for them to release some of their lesser known works for free, and for you to go out and buy them as and when they do get a release.

(This method is of course relatively easy for electronic music as it lends itself well to mixing, but i'm sure it is not impossible to adapt it for all types of music.)