Mp3s - Savior or Satan?
by James

The other day, I was hanging out on Die Section's message board and someone brought up the subject of Mp3s, Napster and the great "Music For Free" debate. Being someone who has discovered a great number of amazing bands in my months of using Napster, I had to get in on this little debate. When I finished writing everything I had to say, I thought it would make a great addition to the rants section and, possibly, help spark some debate here on my boards. What follows is a slightly modified version of what I had to say on Die Section's board.

First, some common misconceptions about Mp3s, as fed to us through the whores at the RIAA.

1 - "Mp3s are CD quality". Bullshit. I downloaded V.O.D.'s new album and burned it to a CD. When I put it into my changer, I had to turn the radio up whenever it went from a standard CD to that one. When I bought it, the day it came out, I really noticed the difference in both volume and overall clarity. A 192 kbps (the net standard) rip of an album sounds about the same as dubbed tapes used to, back in the 80s, when it is burned to a CD. The sound is muffled and the volume levels are much, much lower.

2 - "People will not buy what they can get for free". Again, I say bullshit. People buy newspapers every single day. Newspaper sales are down, yes, but I know that it is because of the rise in paper costs (they fell off, big time, when they had to raise the prices of the papers) and not the fact that you can read the same information on the net. The people who only download, burn and never buy CDs were never going to buy them, anyway. There are some people who refuse to pay money for anything and this has always been true. People can dub songs off the radio all day long, but they still go out and buy the CDs, instead. Mainstream music listeners are simple-minded folk. Stick it in Best Buy for 7 bucks, and it will go gold. Die-hard music fans are always going to want the cover art and CD inlays. They are going to want to support the bands they love.

Mp3s promote record sales in the same way that walking around in Deep Ellum, handing out flyers will get more folks to your shows. It gets your name out there and gets you heard. People focus on that one guy who burns all his CDs, but what about his friends? What if they hear your CD and go out and buy it? It happens every single day. I am personally responsible for creating half a dozen new Slayer fans because I burned God Hates Us All for my best friend. He and I both turned around and bought it the day it came out. Same thing with SOAD, Chimaira and a few other bands. I don't feel guilty for all the MP3s I have downloaded, because I buy 2 or 3 CDs a month and still have close to a hundred on my need to get list. The following bands have received my CD purchase directly because of Mp3s and programs like Napster -

Dillinger Escape Plan
Nile
Luddite Clone
Candiria
Hatebreed
Die Section
Crystal Method
Skinlab
Six Feet Under
Society's Finest
Slayer
American Head Charge
System of a Down
Vision of Disorder
Corporate Avenger
Isis
Maharahj
Meshuggah
Pennywise
Soilent Green
Swift

That is not even the tip of the iceberg, either. There are close to 50 more hardcore/death metal bands that I fucking worship that I have not been able to buy, yet. All because of Mp3s and the evil that is Napster. Also, all but five or so bands on this site are on here because I heard them on Mp3.com or downloaded Mp3s from the band's web site.

I can not say this loudly, enough - there is nothing but gain to be had from more people hearing your music. The number of true music fans out there will always far outnumber the poachers of the world. No amount of litigation will make the poachers stop downloading and destroying Napster didn't even put a dent in their progress, because they never touched it. The hardcore bootleggers always have and always will operate within the shadows of the net, downloading from hidden pubs and IRC channels. The people using Napster were actually listening to the music and buying it, for the most part.

I wish everyone that bought a CD because they heard it on the net would send a card to the RIAA, letting them know just that. Then again, the RIAA would find out where they heard the song, shut down the site, and throw them in court.