There are so many albums I want at the moment. New stuff like “The Blueprint 3” by Jay-Z and “The Resistance” by Muse (specifically "United States of Eurasia" from that album - it's a new direction for them and really reminds me of “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen, an absolutely brilliant track and I'd also recommend “Undisclosed Desires”), older music like “Electric Ladyland” by the Jimi Hendrix Experience and any of the remastered Beatles albums which apparently sound brilliant, future stuff like “Relapse 2”, Eminem's new album, promised for December, and how can I resist Chris Moyle’s' parody album?; which is scheduled for early November.
There's so much choice out there, and as excited as I was for these records, I was thrilled when the Beastie Boys' new album, “Hot Sauce Committee Pt 1”, was announced, and that excitement was only increased when I heard "Too Many Rappers (feat. Nas)" on Zane Lowe's Radio One show! Naturally, I was gutted when I heard MCA had been diagnosed with cancer, and the album release postponed, so (for slightly selfish reasons) I wish Adam "MCA" Yauch a speedy and complete recovery. However, the delay will only heighten my desperation for it, and therefore upon its release in 2010 I will get myself this album.
    I can't wait to hear new material from the Beastie Boys, but the question is how I'll get it. In this day, there are so many ways we can acquire our music. Legally, we can buy our CDs in stores like HMV or buy them online from sites like “play.com”, “amazon.co.uk” or “thehut.co.uk” and have them delivered for free. We can download them from the internet, on “Amazon”, “Napster” or most commonly, “iTunes”, and then burn the songs to CD or simply transfer them onto an “iPod Nano”, “Touch” or my favourite, “Classic”, or even just a conventional MP3 player. Doing it this way, we don't even have to buy the entire album; we can just get certain tracks that appeal to us, such as "United States of Eurasia" or "Undisclosed Desires". Using the internet, you can listen to songs legally for free, such as by going on “YouTube”, then watching the music video to whatever song you wanted. Recently though, a site called “Spotify” has boomed in popularity and it provides music for free by streaming it from the web and interspersing every 7 songs or so with a short advert to cover the royalties cost. Alternatively, you can pay a monthly subscription and have no adverts and listen to unlimited music. "Free" legal songs are now also offered by Nokia with a contract on certain phones. The old tradition of recording songs as they're played on the radio is now gone, however, there are also many ways to get music illegally for free. No, not shoplifting! Many sites, such as “Limewire”, offer P2P file sharing, meaning people can upload their music or just download music uploaded by other people. So, one person can buy the CD, upload it, and make it available to anyone. Free music…appealing, it can't be ignored. Music can also be downloaded from many torrent sites. Some, such as “thepiratebay.com”, have been prosecuted, but there are many others which haven't and can't be as it's not the site that's illegal, it's the files it gives access to. But why, when music is available from so many sources, would you choose to download illegally? The simple answer usually, is money. However, technology must also take some responsibility. In stores, CDs are expensive and with so many people putting music onto their iPods, phones or MP3 players, and CDs requiring time to be “ripped” onto a computer, it's far easier to download music and have it directly placed onto a computer. Retail music sales have dropped dramatically, so dramatically in fact that CD music sales may not be on offer come the London Olympics.
Before they went bankrupt, Woolworths stopped its CD retail branch, moving into online selling. However for sentimentalists, buying CDs online doesn't have the same appeal as buying in a store and you don't have the music in your hand as soon as you purchase it. This is another factor that should swing in the favour of online music download, especially iTunes the majority stakeholder in that market, due to the overwhelming popularity of the Apple flagship, the iPod.
    Unfortunately for them, many people consider music downloads a "rip off", including some music artists, such as "Weird Al Yankovic” the parody artist who's songs are probably the best in their genre, both musically and lyrically. He believes that downloads only help the label, not the artist or industry, as it costs the label nothing to put out a download and the artists still get the same cut, but nobody in the process of CD manufacturing makes anything either. He went as far as to release a song condemning music downloads, especially illegal ones, called "Don't Download This Song" which includes the lines "you start out stealing songs, then you're robbing liqueur stores" and "don't download this song, the record store's where you belong" which clearly demonstrate his view on the subject. Incidentally, it's a very good song, which combines Al's trademark accordion, comic style and serious message perfectly.
    If you don't want to buy a song, then just search for it on YouTube. Many people use this method to listen to music, but recently Google, YouTube’s owner, were forced to take down all official music videos from the site, following a dispute over royalties with the record labels. Since then, the argument has been cleared up, but the incident shows that accessing music this way may not be available long term, unless you use programs such as RealPlayer, and unless you have an internet connection and converter, the videos cannot be played on iPods or MP3s.
Listening to music via the internet is something taken on by “Spotify”, an innovative program that allows users to listen to practically every song ever released by streaming them from the internet for free. This service is paid for by adverts, with the option of, to cut out adverts for a subscription of £10 per month. Luckily, the adverts are discreet and so you do not notice them. Therefore, I would encourage readers to try it themselves although unfortunately it is now invitation only. Similar to listening to songs on YouTube, Spotify's downside is that songs cannot be put onto an iPod, although 2 weeks ago, it was announced that Premium users (those who pay a subscription) could download their playlists for offline access. Napster, an online music seller and formerly illegal music service, also announced plans for users to pay half of Spotify's price to download unlimited songs for offline access, and keep 5 songs per month in a format playable on an iPod.
    Those using the Spotify app for the iPhone and iPod Touch can now keep any tracks (up to a certain limit set by available memory) to listen to at any time, severely threatening Apple's iTunes store, as why would people buy music from them when they can have it for free from another source? On several Nokia contract phones, a similar service is offered, where users have an "unlimited" amount of downloads, with the only drawback being that they're locked to the phone or computer they're downloaded to. Currently, Spotify is constantly increasing in popularity, and it appears to be a significant threat to purchased music. Despite the availability of music in these forms, music piracy is still common, especially amongst teenagers as it provides free music that is instantly accessible and can be put onto an iPod and shared. Little concern goes to the artists, and those who speak out, such as “Lars Ulrich”, drummer for Metallica ("Enter Sandman" is their best known song for a reason) and “Lily Allen” who instantly lose popularity. However, those downloading their music from sites such as Limewire and formerly Napster may have a point in thinking that the artists don't actually need the money (Metallica's album prior to Ulrich's lawsuit - The Black Album - sold millions of copies and gave the band members more money than they knew what to do with!) Many artists lead extravagant lifestyles, which are unthinkable to the majority of us. Saying artists make their money playing live shows rather than from music sales is also a valid argument, but the counter argument is that music sales are required in order to get live shows. Many unsigned bands put their music out on file sharing networks to get noticed and collect a fan base in the hope of getting a record deal.
    Other than this one, all pro-piracy arguments (basically that music should be free and available to everybody) have a common factor: that they refuse to acknowledge that downloading music without paying is in effect stealing, (many people don't consider it to be stealing, with it being so common.) The problems created from this have become something of a political issue with discussions taking place to decide what the best measure against piracy is. Currently, slowing downloader's broadband speed seems to be the favourite option, as this would make downloading take too long to be considered worthwhile. However, with illegal downloading nearly untraceable and next to nobody prosecuted, apart from a few cases in the US, and by "a few" I mean less than 5, the question about whether you should download music illegally is really up to you, your conscience and your morals.
Do you consider it to be stealing? And even if you do, is it worth buying the music as opposed to downloading it for free? Is the music even worth having? In my opinion, “Hot Sauce Committee, Part 1” will be worth having, but I still have to choose which method I use to get it.