iTune’s Blues

After three years of studying Geoffrey Chaucer, Henry James, Sylvia Plath, and so many other great contributors of language I decided to step outside my frequently tedious English major for my last semester of college. I enrolled into a recording arts class to attempt to study a subject that I have been interested my whole life, besides the Canterbury Tales. On the very first day of the music class, my professor asked the class, by a show of hands, “Who has ever downloaded music without paying for it?” Apprehensively, the majority of the class raised their arms in guilt and those who didn’t were clearly lying to save face. My teacher acknowledged that everyone does it, but he still continued to shake his finger in shame at our class for being thieves of the music industry. I admit, at first I didn’t want to be classified as a bandit of the music industry because of my downloaded program of shared music, but then I got to thinking, why feel ashamed of helping artists get their work heard and publicized?
We live in such a world that even if you are listening to a song or compilation that hasn’t been directly paid for by you, the government has the ability to break through your front door, put you into handcuffs, on the charge of burglary. Although piracy has been an ongoing struggle with record labels and production agencies, artists have really lashed out about their music being illegally heard. In the constant pursuit of more money and more fame, artists are overreacting. Everyone who watches television or listens to the slowly-diminishing radio stations know how much money popular artists make by copying their talent, or often lack there of, onto a record. So when artists themselves take a stand against the illegal listening of their music I can’t help to think that the last thing these greedy performers need is more money.
What about making music for the pure purpose of producing a universal work of art for everyone to hear? In our greedy society artists, producers, and managers have lost sight of the true meaning behind the purpose of music and are only concerned with getting their full ninety nine cents from iTunes. Musicians are way too caught up with the image that will be projected of them on the E! Network or how big their house will be after their first paycheck. They are forgetting why they have this fame in the first place. Artists used to live and breathe for their music, but are now living and breathing for every cent they could make by enforcing laws to make everyone pay to hear their sound.
What about art for art’s sake? A lot of contemporary musicians are no longer interested in producing a unique work of art to hopefully be heard by millions just for the sake of their music. Our advanced Internet technology has allowed for this piracy to exist all over the globe, making any song available for your auditory pleasure at any time- to the point that it is uncontrollable. As a loyal fan of music, frequent concert go-ers, and consumer of music merchandise, I am choosing to not feel guilty for my few illegal, yet overly accessible, downloads. I know that people in the music industry are hurting financially because of the effects of piracy, but I am a firm supporter of the music industry making a profit in other ways, such as concerts, TV, publicity, merchandise, and videos. I know that piracy is illegal and it is the stealing of someone’s work but I prefer not to look at it in such a black or white way. I wish that artists would remember a time when producing their music and making their sound heard was their number one prerogative, not cashing in every 99 cents. Often, my guilt perseveres due to the constant advertising produced to scare the public away from piracy, and I give into the dollar entrapment of iTunes for one song. The music industry, blind sighted by greed, is slowly killing the essence of music. I feel that the laws of music should follow that of the First Amendment and should be made for the sake of making a beautiful sound for everyone to hear.
Maddy Weese