Week Eight Writing Assignment

I will admit, I have illegally downloaded a large amount of music. It all started around middle school when Napster was popular. My brother and I would download music on our families computer and we were not aware that it was even a bad thing. After Napster was shut down, new illegal downloading programs became available, such as Kazaa, Bearshare and Limewire. The premises from A Better Way Forward article states, "Killing Napster only spawned more decentralized networks. Most evidence suggest that file sharing is at least as popular today as it was before the lawsuits began." 

My personal ethics regarding file sharing is that it is so normal and common to me, I feel it is okay. I do however understand that file sharing is wrong and is taking away profit from artists who work hard at their job and could potentially be loosing money. But the way I see it, in order to get music around, just like the news or any means of communication, the music has to be bounced around and shared through people. I myself love when friends introduce me to new music, especially since they know what kind of person I am so they know what genre and styles of music I will be interested in.  People are lazy in society and do not always go out looking for new bands and music to listen to, but rather wait and get introduced to it by someone else. Although sharing music with friends can help promote the bands and lead to branching the music off to more people, it "robs the people who created the music of compensation" - stated in the RIAA article. It sort of has a domino affect, as when the record companies are deprived, employees loose their jobs, artists get taken off rosters, and fewer bands are able to be signed. In the long run this is not going to help the music industry. 

In comparing shoplifting a CD from a store and downloading free music on the internet, I feel the two differ on many accounts. As the RIAA article states, "When you go online and download songs without permission, you are stealing. 

The illegal downloading o music if just as wrong as shoplifting from a local convenience store - and the impact on those who create music and bring it to fans is equally devastating."  First of all, it is not our fault that someone made these illegal downloading programs available to anyone who wants it, and it is hard to resist the temptation when frankly it is basically like people standing outside of these music stores and handing it to us, free of charge. I do not see it on the same terms as walking into a music store and physically stealing the CD, however I am aware that it is wrong, but not enough people are aware of this so they do it anyway. 

Whether or not the artist is popular or struggling, I feel that downloading their music and sharing it with others is making the artist or band bigger. However after reading the article on RIAA I did not realize that more than just the artist's are affected by this. Sound engineers and technicians to warehouse workers and record store clerks are all affected as well. Piracy deprives the music industry of the resources that help develop new talent. 

I recently began to DJ at our schools radio station and I have been playing local bands from my home town, along with local bands around this area to promote their music and make them more popular. I tend to mention their my-space URL so that people can check them out and see what they sound like, in hopes of then buying their CD at a store or on Itunes. 

For people who wish to buy CD's and would like to try it out, their are many websites that allow sampling of music, without illegal download. Take for example my-space, which actually lets you listen to entire songs that have been accessible legally by the artist themselves, or someone who works for the artist. Some are even downloadable. I think that when people say they are going to test out a song, it will lead to "testing" out more and more songs, unable to resist the temptations into downloading all free music. But is it the individuals who are downloading this free music to blame? I feel that although it is wrong, it's not like these people were the ones who created these programs, and for that matter they would never be tempted to get this music for free because it would not be accessible. 

I am not going to lie and say I will never download music illegally again, but after reading these articles, I now am aware of how many people this is hurting. I am interested working in the music industry myself, so I feel that I am just harming my own future by downloading free music. I hope that someday, all illegal downloading of music will be shut down so I will no longer be tempted to download. 

Week Seven Writing Assignment

Over the years the media has changed dramatically and one way of looking at it is its change from analog to digital. Nowadays, it is very easy to produce music, movies, and artwork from home rather than from renting out a studio or buying expensive programs. In remembering in class, you told a story about your file sharing in high school, recording friends music off of cassette tapes. Relating to now, the same concept works, however it is way easier and faster. Instead of manually copying it, as all we need to do is connect online and send through computers. This modern way of file sharing has a lot of pros; easier, faster, and without the purchases of CD's or tapes people are saving money. 

One thing that came to mind when thinking about movies and how they have changed through digital processing is that the quality has gotten a lot better. Aside from having a plasma TV, one can receive great quality from specific DVD's themselves from just being modern and great quality. Recently I watched 101 Dalmatians, which is animated, however compared to something like Lilo & Stitch, the animation quality is a lot different. I almost would like to say that I like the quality in 101 Dalmatians better, as it looks more drawn rather than just full out animated from a computer. With sound, I feel it is hard for us to distinguish sound now from sound a few decades back as more people are buying televisions with surround sound or just high quality speakers which makes the sound more realistic. I'm sure if someone who hadn't watched a film for 30 years would be amazed at the difference in sound, but since we have gradually been listening as it has changed, it is hard to notice. 

In thinking about the music I have, I think about what my life was like before I got Itunes. I had a lot of CD's that took up a lot of space. Once getting Itunes, I burned all of my CD's onto my computer so it would be quicker and faster to find certain songs. I enjoy having all of my music in front of me on one page however I do believe there is a downside to this. Before I had itunes I would listen to certain CD's in my room or in my car. I can remember the first time I came to california in the rental car all we listened to was my Yellowcard CD, so now whenever I listen to that CD it reminds me of that time when I came here. When listening to CD's even after I had itunes, I would make mixes then listen to them through a CD player or a car and still be aware of exactly what song would play next. When I first started listening to my iPod I would play it on shuffle and having so many songs it would get annoying because before I would only listen to a specific genre or album at the same time. Considering I have over 3000 songs it is rare that a song of the same artist or album would play in a row. One thing I have discovered that can solve my problem is that on itunes we can make playlists so what I do is make playlists then when I'm driving or just listening to music I will put on a specific playlist depending on my mood. I enjoy having all my music together on this library however I realize that I do not give each song its equal respect. Their is even a portion of songs I have never played all the way through - or even played at all. 

I feel I have a strong relationship with media. I enjoy playing on Garage band - a program on macs where you can create your own songs with a variety of beats to choose from, which also lets you import sections from your itunes library too. This application is fun to play around with and lets me understand how music is made in the studios. I appreciate the technology we have today and feel it is good for our society.