File Sharing... or Big Record Labels should Shove it up their Ass

This is just a quick one... years after the issue has been debated to death but I was thinking about it last night...

I fail to see how music sharing on the interwebs is going to kill the music industry. Now I'm not the most piratical file sharer ever (to be honest I can't work the damn programs) but I've got a (i'd imagine) single digit percentage of songs on my ipod that have been given to me by friends and I don't know their sources. All the stuff I've loaded up has either come from cds I've bought (the majority), stuff I've downloaded legit (things like unearthed rock).
That being said the biggest issue I have with file sharing is I'm an absolute label nazi when it comes to my ipod... everything needs as much song title, track number, artist, star rating, date, artwork and whatever other info I can get (artist and song are ESSENTIAL however and I will agonise over star ratings). This sort of data nazi-ing is not compatible with file sharing shit where people fill out data incompletely (if at all) or even worse put the wrong info on there...

But that's an aside, basically last night I was reflecting on the death of the music industry due to piracy (apparently it's the end of the world)... and that's pretty bullshit... There will always be music, it's not going to go away. The kids I was watching last night (The Royals and Kujo Kings go and listen to them/see them play) are not going to stop playing music any time soon... And to be honest they would bust their ass as much for a crowd of 10-20 mates as a packed out soulless venue. File sharing won't affect that in the slightest... if anything all the digital music crap probably helps... I've lost track the number of people I've linked to their websites and stuff (it's "everyone" I think).
As many/some/a couple/that one guy will know one of my favourite bands is (was? they've split now) Tsunami Bomb and their public policy was "we don't care about file sharing, send our stuff to everyone... if it makes them hear us/come to our shows we're happy... plus we make no money from cds, just our merch" (they had shitty label issues)

As far as I can tell, filesharing and whatnot won't affect people making music, they're not going to ever stop... But it might make it harder for record labels to make big money with those 5 bands everyone is told to like by the radio. That's not a bad thing... less shitty mass produced music by the marketing department, less insane profits for a company/5 bands and a wider spectrum of stuff getting played... None of that is bad...

And to be honest, if I hear a song online I like the sound of I will go see that band live (if I can) and more often than not I'll then buy their cds and see them again (and again and again)... That's how i got into Tsunami Bomb, The Lillingtons, Teenage Bottlerocket, Action Design and more... Although I did ban myself from buying tshirts a few years ago... So they're better off than they would've been trying to get anyone uploading music for free executed...

So in summary, Mass Produced big label stuff is shit and bad for the soul, if you hear a good band share their stuff with your friends and then go pay the $10 and see them play live at a pub... you'll have more fun than anything you will see from row XX52c at the fucking entertainment centre...

I think that's enough ranting

Love, Hugs and Kisses
ANt