Finding Love Through Music

Now this is for all the married couples, or couples in general. Here is something that has been bugging me for awhile. Is the main reason yall "clicked" because of music? Would you ever have loved your soul mate if they liked a different style than what you like? I am doing a little research to figure this out and write a follow up a little later.

I feel music is strong enough to deter some people away from somebody who has everything else in common. Everybody has a "song" and what if they never get that. What if there never is that one song they can agree on for the wedding or there's never that song that reminds you of when you met? If you had a favorite song or a favorite artist your girl hated, what would you do? Let me hear what everybody has to say. Personally, music is the first topic I bring up with a girl and second of course is family. Most don't get past the first before I lose interest.

From the mind of
Keveeno Reeverts

Finding Love Through Music

The Price of Free Music (Part 2)

So why are we still utilizing services like Limewire and Morpheus? Because we feel entitled to. We want to take the music with us in our cars, on our iPods, and throughout every step of our lives without being confined to the chairs in front of our computers. But that's not fair. It's not fair to the artists either on major labels, who yes, have had many of their expenses taken care of, but will have to recomp the label for them once the money starts coming in, or on indie labels and self-releases, where they truly have put up their own hard earned money to do what they love and take the music as far as they can, to our own ears.

We like to say that technology has created so many opportunities for artists that would have never had them before, and in some cases, it's true. Studios are relatively cheaper to create and easier to use than ever before. With the advent of Myspace and Youtube, it has become easier to communicate with people around the world, to network, to be noticed. But with all of that has come a much easier, and sadly, socially acceptable way to take music without compensating the people who created it. We all make excuses: I'm a poor college student, I would have never actually spent money on this particular album so picking it up for free isn't that big of a deal, I just want to know if I like it before I spend money on it... but the truth is, those excuses are baseless.

You know? Someday, I hope to make money in this industry. There is nothing I love more than popular music. I love to sing it, play it, write it, and I'm learning to love the business side of all of it too. And how pretentious would it make me to expect to get the music I listen to for free and still expect others to pay me for mine?

Money has been tight for me lately, and I have had to add many, many albums to my wishlist rather than running right out to buy them like I'm used to doing. It's honestly painful, but I absolutely can't fathom stealing music anymore. It doesn't feel right to me.

It shouldn't feel right to you either.

Courtney

The Price of Free Music (Part 2)

The Price of Free Music (Part 1)

I honestly can't say I've met anyone of my particular generation who hasn't stolen music. Yeah, I admit, I've done it too. The problem is, as long as we're not picking up a physical CD at the nearest Target and walking out of the store without visiting the friendly cashiers first, we don't see it as stealing. It is. We need to convince people that not only is illegal downloading wrong, but the quality of music is eventually going to suffer for it.

I don't honestly understand what has led people to feel so entitled to music for free. What other services will expect not to pay for next? Should we visit a restaurant without tipping a server who did his or her job remarkably just because, hey, that's the job? Should we walk into an accountant's office and expect him or her to do our taxes for us, free of charge? How about seeking out a lawyer's service? Should he or she have gotten through years of expensive law school just to dispense free advice in all cases?

There are new services bringing entertainment into our homes for free-- and TV is the first thing I think of when I think of this. Services like Hulu.com and TheWB.com are offering full episodes of a variety of TV shows free of charge to the viewer--but they've found a way to do it legally, by obtaining licensing and including advertisements to make the funding possible. And when you think about it, watching TV this way isn't much different than watching it in the traditional way, because you're still paying for one main service (cable, satellite, or the internet), and the advertisements are still helping to fund the experience, so it's not really free.

Internet radio has made some of this possible in some cases for music: Pandora.com, iLike.com, and Last.fm all offer different ways to listen to the songs and artists you like, allowing you to create playlists, listen to stations based on a certain artist you love, or just search, song by song, artist by artist, and listening to what you please. The reason this works, though, is that those plays are all being recorded, and the artists, songwriters, and other associated with each song played are still earning their royalties. You're not paying, really, but they're still earning, and it's a beautiful, beautiful thing.
To be continued....

Courtney

The Price of Free Music (Part 1)