There is this idea that filesharing is bad for bands, which comes from a simple logical fallacy that hinges on the misguided notion that if free downloads were not available, the downloader would instead purchase the album. In reality, in most cases of illegal music downloading, the listener would not buy the album if he couldn’t download it, he would simply not listen to it at all. As a person who spends quite a bit of money supporting struggling underground bands, I can say with absolute certainty that in my case, without illegal downloads not a cent of that money would’ve been spent, because without filesharing I would never have had any idea who any of those bands were.

Illegal filesharing affords curious listeners an immense freedom to discover new bands: the whole risk/reward equation regarding trying new music shifts drastically when you don’t have to pay fifteen dollars for each experiment. This allows the listener in the age of filesharing to listen to innumerable albums which otherwise wouldn’t have been sure enough bets to gamble dollars on. Most music that is made is somewhere between mediocre and trash, and the good stuff is rarely found where you would expect it. Illegal downloads allow people interested in music to slog through lakes of shit without becoming discouraged and giving up before they stumble on hidden gems. And once a filesharer discovers something awesome, he can spread it to all of his friends via what else but online downloads.

Filesharing also erases the problem of getting signed. Underground bands no longer need a record label to distribute their music and no longer need marketing campaigns to get fans far from home. Illegal downloading allows a band to develop a widespread enough audience to tour for without spending a single cent beyond recording costs. And the most prolific downloaders have been shown time and again to go to the most shows and spend the most money on CDs and merch.

So who is filesharing bad for? The most often trotted out and most risible answer is that it’s bad for superfamous musicians. This is absurd, though true. I don’t think a single human being on this planet could work up a tear for a millionaire being denied one more million. People also argue that filesharing is causing the decline of the major record companies. This is also a silly thing to get sad about, though I hope it is true: there is nothing in the history of these companies but the repression of creativity and the denial of profits to successful artists; they are the enemies of music and musicians, and if illegal filesharing does enough damage to destroy them it will only be one more success of this method of musical distribution.

But filesharing is bad for something, and that thing is independent labels. A label needs money to keep on running in a way that is much deeper than the way bands need it: if no records are sold, a band can still play live shows and sell merchandise; there are many bands whose albums are not the primary source of their income, and in fact bands on major labels make very little money from record sales. However, if a label doesn’t sell enough albums, that label closes down. Many independent labels are run by people who care about the music and who see their job to be raising awareness of bands they think are good; independent labels are much more likely to pay their bands a substantial proportion of the profits from their albums.

Though it may be sad to see venerable indie labels closing down and new labels struggling, it does not have real consequences for bands or for listeners. More and more bands prefer to go unsigned and give their albums limited or digital-only releases—with the internet, the major reason to try to get signed—visibility—has disappeared. You can get more people to listen to your music by giving it away than you can by marketing it or by being associated with a trustworthy organization, and, ultimately, if a band makes music for reasons other than getting that music heard, they can get fucked.

It is true that it’s difficult for a band to become financially successful in the age of the internet, but to say that like it’s meaningful implies that before filesharing it was easier, and that is simply untrue. Success is always improbable, if you care about your music you’ll make it whether anyone pays you or not, and many of the most popular musicians of all time never made a cent for anybody but their record company. Filesharing is one of the best things ever to happen to listeners and bands alike.