LIMEWIRE IS SHUT DOWN: WILL USERS NOW LOOK FOR LEGAL ALTERNATIVES?
After reading this Guardian article by Josh Halliday, it became apparent that peoples views on illegal downloading and filesharing were varied from all ends of the spectrum with Mark Mulligan, a music analyst Forrester Researcher stating that “The reason they fileshare is not because they love the way technology works, it’s because it’s easily accessible content which is free,”. Whereas We7 founder Steve Purdham believes that consumers need to be educated and more aware of the legal alternatives.
This week, Limewire was killed by the US Courts as it was judged to be causing a “massive scale of infringement”. Yet some artists, dj’s and producers state that without illegal downloading, gaining notoriety to perform live shows would be incredibly difficult. For example, Brodinski states that the internet and downloading from blogs are the “single biggest reason” to his success as “you can access so many different styles and blogs and get peoples music without having to buy it.” Similarly, Marc-Antoine Chanteperdrix states “Through illegal downloading, artists don’t gain money, yet if they’re talented and people recognise this, they gain attention, which will eventually get them shows, gigs, DJ sets etc.” With some DJ’s getting paid upto £2000 a set, and sometimes more, the finacial rewards of recognition are obvious.
Personally, I feel that with some MP3 singles now costing around £2 each, the majority of supporters would rather download an artists material for free (through various file-sharing sites), but then spend a little more money to both see the artist live, and be wrapped up in the entourage and vibe that comes with that. Kid City Blog co-founder Taylor Freels summed it up nicely, saying that “it’s a double standard, for the money lost, the fans gained.” He also went on to say that it’s a “form of advertisement, which entices people to come out to the artists shows.”
With the closure of LimeWire, people will be questioning the ethics of downloading an artists music for free, yet I feel the majority will simply move onto the next torrent or file-sharing site.
