File Sharing: It’s Not All Good
February 24, 2010
Frosted tree tips just outside the city, products of last night’s sleet barrage, greet me on yet another beautiful Minneapolis morning. Except this time, the frozen white fingertips of the tree line, stretching heavenward, are ushering me out of the metropolis and into the great northern realms of the state. Besides being drenched in freezing rain the prior evening, Minneapolis experienced a different blow of the cold kind—another talented young band forced to hang up their hats and call it a day.
The band I’m referring to is a little-known hardcore group called Cowards. Somehow, after witnessing their “last” set at the Beat Coffeehouse and being totally blown out of my gourd by their original brand of prog-infused hardcore punk, I’ve scored a ride up to Duluth with the bassist to check out their true final gig as a band. This is going to be the good one I’m told.
As we coast past completely whited-out scenes of forest pines, the soundtrack of our little road trip takes a complete one hundred and eighty degree turn—the washed-out percussion of the first track of Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” pours out the speaker to my left. It is only then that I remember the original prompt that I was given for this article: “why file sharing is wrong.” A bold statement that screw-you-music-industry-we’re-letting-the-consumer-decide masters Radiohead might find laughable. So, you might be able to sympathize with me on why that little doozy had slipped my mind. I love file sharing. Everyone loves file sharing. FREE CONTENT, get your FREE CONTENT right here, all day, every day, on the beautiful new age invention we have embraced called the Internet.
For bands like Cowards, however, free content is not the prettiest combination of two words in the English language. What most people would call “free content”—a self-released four song EP entitled Solitude—that can be mindlessly obtained with a few clicks, is in reality made up of the blood and sweat of three hardworking artists who happen to share the name Kyle.
Yes, file sharing is an amazing tool for small unknown bands to build a fan base by giving away their content. Megastars such as Radiohead also don’t have to worry about file sharing affecting their net worth too much either—they’ve proved that their following is willing to donate a hefty chunk of change. It is the bands stuck in between these two opposite poles of notoriety whose livelihood is essentially ransacked by the Internet pirate.
In an age that saw the major record label keel over and reveal its slowly dying overstuffed abdomen of commercial pap, the music lover was treated to a rapid rise in independent artists willing to create art that challenged their listeners. With Pitchfork and Pandora, we now have more music than our iPods or wallets can possibly handle. That being said, we do not live in a whimsical socialist state that supports the arts. The only way in which musicians will be able to continue to create that original “content” is if the individual consumer throws some bones their way.
Cowards’ last show was held in the basement of Kyle’s (guitar) parents house in Duluth. Nestled shoulder to shoulder in a dingy basement, circle pit included, with almost 70 kids of varying ages and dress was an inspiring and humbling experience. Cowards finished their set, and I realized I had witnessed one of the most energetic and amazing live shows of my life.
For a completely D.I.Y. produced show, the band accepted a good amount of donations as cover. Kids are still willing to pay to see punk rock. Leaving Duluth with this firsthand renewal of faith, I felt that Minneapolis might just feel a little bit warmer upon my return.
Comments & Discussion
I just now searched for this band on HypeMachine, Soulseek, The Pirate Bay, Isohunt, Mininova, BTJunkie, Demonoid and Waffles.fm, and I could not find their music anywhere. So how exactly was this band “robbed of a living” by file-sharing if their music wasn’t even being pirated?
And how many bands from the 80s and 90s had to hang it up because their music wasn’t marketable enough for a major label? How many worked day jobs their whole careers while they put out albums on obscure indie labels that almost no one heard?
There are so many great things about being a musician in this time period. This is the only era in which a band that makes, say, a bizzarre mixture of Tropical/Drone/Psychedelic music, can quit their day jobs because their mp3′s have become so popular on niche music blogs that their limited-run cassette-only release has totally sold out in just 48 hours (see bands like Real Estate, Washed Out, Best Coast, Sun Araw, etc).
What the band in this article SHOULD have been doing was trying to get their music to spread all over the net. The internet is where the music “scene” is at, and if you’re not there, you essentially don’t exist. They should have uploaded their EP to every single torrent site on the net and encouraged everyone to share it with as many people as possible. Do that, and pretty soon your shows have grown from 70 kids to 700. That’s how you make a living.
Stop working against the tide of the internet. It’s pointless. Learn to harness it and use it to your advantage.
I agree with the majority of what you have said. Although, I would like to point out that the purpose of the article was not to argue that file sharing is the reason behind bands like Cowards being unable to continue creating their art (Cowards have disbanded for a variety of reasons).
What I wanted people to take away from my inclusion of the DIY show in duluth is the fact that these kids were still willing to contribute the little money they had to help out an artist. I’m sure these kids all download music — as they should. How else would a barely heard of band like Cowards put on such a good live show?
And yes, the internet has opened up the industry artistically. But I would just like to stress that too many people see this widening of the artistic palette as a free buffet. If you wish to enjoy said diversity, be prepared to support the music by going to a show, buying some merch, or actually purchasing a physical copy of an album for once.
For a network of sharable content to work as a means of capitalism the conscious consumer must see the product as a work of art — something with an inherent monetary value — not just a slew of freebie files up for grabs for the collective ear.