Wow, while sitting here waiting for my new The Sims 4 game to install, while being enraged by certain events of the evening, I come across an interview with Gene Simmons I really liked. I usually don’t pay too much attention to what he man says, but seriously, THIS. THIS PEOPLE.
“The masses do not recognize file-sharing and downloading as stealing because there’s a copy left behind for you — it’s not that copy that’s the problem, it’s the other one that someone received but didn’t pay for. The problem is that nobody will pay you for the 10,000 hours you put in to create what you created. I can only imagine the frustration of all that work, and having no one value it enough to pay you for it.
It’s very sad for new bands. My heart goes out to them. They just don’t have a chance. If you play guitar, it’s almost impossible. You’re better off not even learning how to play guitar or write songs, and just singing in the shower and auditioning for The X Factor. And I’m not slamming The X Factor, or pop singers. But where’s the next Bob Dylan? Where’s the next Beatles? Where are the songwriters? Where are the creators? Many of them now have to work behind the scenes, to prop up pop acts and write their stuff for them.” – Gene Simmons
And this is just a fragment. They are talking a lot more about this in the interview, and I don’t understand why it’s so hard for people to get it through their heads.
Don’t. Fucking. Download. Albums. Illegally.
You are LITERALLY killing the bands you love by doing this. LITERALLY. If you buy the CD physically or through iTunes – I don’t care. As long as you fucking PAY for it. People need to fucking understand that this is STEALING. And you are STEALING not from a big corporation, but from people who have given up their LIVES to do this. And you need to get it through your head, that without CD sales, the band isn’t gonna get any gigs. So don’t come here with the gigs drama shit. Because without recordsales, no gigs.
So GET IT THROUGH YOUR FUCKING HEAD you people who download album illegally.
You. Are. DESTROYING. For. The. Band. You. Love.
What weirds me out even more is when aspiring musicians do it. Like, you wanna be in the industry, and you want to work with this, but you ain’t willing to pay for the others who do the same thing? And this crap about “I want to check it out before I buy it”… Am I the only one who actually likes the sort of roulette thing that it is to buy an album by a band you don’t know, and just see how it goes? I have albums I rarely listen to. But I tell you one thing.
I do not. NOT. NEVER. EVER. regret buying a CD. Not even if I didn’t like it that well. Because regardless if I don’t like it, there is STILL people – producers, engineers, photographers/graphics and most importantly – the musicians who made it, who at least GETS PAID.
That’s the most important thing.
Jesus, I can go on and on and on about this subject, and I probably will. This subject is close to heart.
And I will be so fucking proud to die amongst my huge recordcollection
// Sara
(Note: This is about illegal downloading only. Using streaminsites such as Spotify, is another thing.)
Sara Hammerzmith 