« Youtube and Free Downloads? »

By Crystal Phelps

With so many options these days for free music I asked a few of our Directors the question,"Do you think YouTube and all the free downloads etc. has helped the music scene or hurt it to some extent?

The consensus is that there are both pros and cons."The pros are that it's very easy to get your message out to anyone who's interested in seeing it or hearing it" states Tobias Hurwitz, Baltimore Director. Another pro per Joseph John, Los Angeles Director, Is "Now, as listeners, we're able to try out new bands, discover new sounds, and open our world up to music we may have never been exposed to before with very little cost, as it is being provided for free."And per Donald Davidson, Long Island Director, "The "music business" seems to be finished. It's all back in the hands of the consumer. All modern music is now readily available for free or cheap, you can see videos of all your favorite bands, you can speak to them personally and follow them online."

The cons as you can well imagine concern finances. Per Tobias, "The main drawback is that those of us who spend years of time and invest thousands of dollars on producing recordings find it virtually impossible to sell them because stealing music is the accepted norm in society today. My products, for example, are available on itunes, and a few people are buying them, but other companies have pirated them and are making them available for free. I have a feeling that most people are going for the free stuff, which makes my itunes payments very small. "Likewise response from Joseph John, " The only areas where we can specifically trace a possible negative on the music scene is with regards to songwriter royalties. It used to be that we'd listen to an Elvis album with one or two hits, it would sell millions and the songwriters of the "non-hit" songs would still make a living. Now, you can just download the one track you like and not ever have to hear or pay for the other writers on that album. The other difficulty can come from there being a huge breath of music out there making it more challenging to find quality depth of material, but alas, this may always have been a problem following the 1940's.

Well, I guess if you want to help your favorite bands out there and make sure they stick around you best take Donald Davidson's advice, "Go see live rock music, lots of it, all types, especially big arena shows. It's the only money many of these bands make. I run into dad's at concerts all the time who say "I haven't been to a concert in 20 years" "Wow, My family has been to 20 concerts this year. Skip the football game and go see Greenday. Every seat at the Garden this summer was only $49 and I got excellent seats 2 weeks prior to the show." So go see a show soon!!

I'm sure everyone has their own opinions on the subject but, I must admit that in these times free is good. But, don't forget the artist and try to support your favorites by actually buying a CD or if you can go see them in concert before they fade away.