Another pirate girl that loves supporting the ARRRts.

I've actually lost count of reasons why downloading music is good. But I'll list a few main ones which I'd be interested in hearing your counterpoint, keep in mind that I'm speaking in terms of the type of music I listen to since I don't listen to much on the radio but more near "independent" type bands:#1 The music is free anyways. Go to your favourite indie artist site or myspace: Arcade Fire, Magneta Lane, The Lovely Feathers and you'll either see a song list to download, or a band radio to listen to. I fail to see why I should inconvenience myself to have to listen to it through a browser when I can easily do it through another software. Almost 95% of my downloads come from the band's own website or myspace.#2 If you refuse to listen to artists who condemn downloading then that leaves you with artists who realize the benefits of downloading. This means, I have even more reason not to listen Metallica and even more reason to support Radiohead, System of a Down and the Arctic Monkeys who've publicly supported either a donation or download system.#3 It makes the artists more money b/c it brings people like me out to the concert. Do you really think I'd be as willing to go smaller bands like the Mountain Goats if I didn't have a chance to download their tracks and give it a few listens to get into it? Buying a CD would just add an extra $15 to my concert ticket, and would be too risky since I may not like it..so I wouldn't do it. In the case of the Mountain Goats, instead of making no money from the CD I would never have bought from the Mountain Goats, they'll make the $10 from when I go see them. On top of this, it saves me money to use it more wisely on good music... before Bedouin Soundclash got popular on the radio I was about to buy a ticket for $10 to give them a listen, luckily I downloaded their music and decided to re-invest the cash into a $40 Bright Eyes ticket who sounded better.#5 Ever since I started downloading rather than listening I've been spending MORE money on music than ever before. I've calculated it and realized that the amount spent was so significantly greater that there's no way someone can tell me otherwise. Look, I bought 10 CDs while at school and a few others but didn't like enough of the modern mainstream bands to bother going to concerts (I still don't like them). That's about $200 over the span of 8 years =$25 a year before I started downloading. In the last 3 years I spent more than $200 at a rate of something like $60/year because I've had a chance to explore so many great bands that don't regularly make it onto the radio like A Northern Chorus or Bright Eyes.#6 CD lovers should stay CD lovers, and concert lovers should simply be more encouraged to more concerts by downloading.#7 The technology is awful. I don't use CDs. My laptop and my PDA are my sources and I use the .mp3 not .wav format. But alot of the music you download from Amazon and iTunes is DRM locked. When it's locked I can't move the music around when new technology comes along that plays mp3s. So I never actually fully-own the songs unless I pirate them....which takes me to #8...#8 I'm too picky with what software I use to bother waiting for major labels that have little to do with a lot of the bands I listen to, to invent a solution. If I want to use Amarok instead of iTunes, then I should use it now. Why does Universal Records, a major label, have a say in what software I use in downloading when I rather listen to a more independent label like CreekWater records anyway? If Universal wants to stop my access to artists like "Lil Wayne" and "Ja Rule" then good! In fact, please stop my access from hearing their names on ANY media form and do us all a favour! And in this hypothetical scenario, if that means I'll lose access to a good artist like Erykah Baduh...well that's her fault for signing, not mine. Besides, if that really became the case then I'd just have to log into Universal's own website to hear the music give out for free on their site but protect from anyone else.