File-Sharing Boosts Creation of New Hit Music?

According to a new study, online piracy is actually linked to the creation of more music

New research published by Tulane University Law Professor Glynn Lunney shows that online piracy is linked to the creation of more hit music. The increase in output can be attributed to existing artists, who make up for a decline in new hits from newcomers. This counter-intuitive finding suggests that file-sharing advances the core purpose of copyright, and that it should be permitted under copyright law.

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Now if there are any artists out there that would actually bring out some good music instead of this mass produced, formulaic crap we've had for the last decade, I might actually buy a CD.

dgingeri said:

Now if there are any artists out there that would actually bring out some good music instead of this mass produced, formulaic crap we've had for the last decade, I might actually buy a CD.

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I hate this view on music, there is plenty of good music out there. It's one if the points if the article that file sharing has helped other artists get recognised more.

Trimlock said:

I hate this view on music, there is plenty of good music out there. It's one if the points if the article that file sharing has helped other artists get recognised more.

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People aren't willing to look for good new music. They expect their niche to hit top 40, which isn't likely to happen unless what they like is mainstream. Just go find what you're looking for.

I've been digging around for months and have found hundreds of new songs to purchase. I'm not ready to be a cranky old guy, I still like music.

The only good music left is movie and video game scores. It's the purest form of music you can find, immune to any kind of shitty commercial intent.

Trimlock said:

I hate this view on music, there is plenty of good music out there. It's one if the points if the article that file sharing has helped other artists get recognised more.

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LeninGHOLA said:

People aren't willing to look for good new music. They expect their niche to hit top 40, which isn't likely to happen unless what they like is mainstream. Just go find what you're looking for.

I've been digging around for months and have found hundreds of new songs to purchase. I'm not ready to be a cranky old guy, I still like music.

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Music these days is amazing. You have such variety and there is something for everyone. People always say that music is dying and point to the radio as their only source. Dumbassess... Fans need to learn to search for the good music they seek. I mean can they make the internet any easier for people?

dgingeri said:

Now if there are any artists out there that would actually bring out some good music instead of this mass produced, formulaic crap we've had for the last decade, I might actually buy a CD.

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The problem isn't that artists bringing out good music, is that we are having shitty music that is dictated by record labels shoved down our throats.

There are hundreds of artists making music that's probably classified as "good", the issue is we don't easily see(hear) those, we have Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Emenim, etc, hitting us from all sides. Record labels build up some person to be someone they can sell a lot of tunes to, unfortunately those people tend to be the most uncreative ones out there.

If the entire music industry died, and no one could make money anymore; the only people left to make music would be the ones who are truly passionate about it. This would be horrible.

sfsuphysics said:

The problem isn't that artists bringing out good music, is that we are having shitty music that is dictated by record labels shoved down our throats.

There are hundreds of artists making music that's probably classified as "good", the issue is we don't easily see(hear) those, we have Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Emenim, etc, hitting us from all sides. Record labels build up some person to be someone they can sell a lot of tunes to, unfortunately those people tend to be the most uncreative ones out there.

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Good music is out there, but you really have to filter though all the BS Miley, Bieber (and those following in their footsteps) crap to find it. The filters need to get bigger and bigger to find those rare gems. I've found a bit, but even a lot of the stuff in my normal genre is getting repetitive and predictable.

I hate to disagree, but there's a lot of shitty music out there. Everything sounds kind of the same on pop radio.....very few original artist out there, and most of your hit makers are just dancing chickens.

They don't write the songs, they have their vocals "enhanced", and generally lack talent. Instead they are pretty boy/girls that look good. Live they have to lip sync. These are not artist. These are not musicians. They are actors. They suck.

LeninGHOLA said:

People aren't willing to look for good new music. They expect their niche to hit top 40, which isn't likely to happen unless what they like is mainstream. Just go find what you're looking for.

I've been digging around for months and have found hundreds of new songs to purchase. I'm not ready to be a cranky old guy, I still like music.

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Yea, if you aren't willing to go out and find what you want to listen to then these people need to stop bitching.

Radio stations are a joke.
All we get is the same cookie cutter BS shoved down our throats over and over by the RIAA because "just like mommy, they know best!"
If you want good music, you surf Youtube or listen to Pandora until you finally chain to something new and exciting the evil overlords would have never allowed to go mainstream.
I've found some great artists thanks to Youtube like Linsey Stirling, Pentatonix, The Piano Guys and Macklemore.
I know, they're not everybody's cup of tea, but hey they break the mold and try to bring something new and exciting to the table.
And Pandora, gotta love it. I toss in my favorite bands and it finds bands similar I've never heard of before.
Big record companies are rapidly becoming obsolete because artists can now promote themselves on the internet through outlets like Youtube and Pandora, plus they can sell their albums digitally through Amazon, Google Play and iTunes and make 45-75 cents a song instead of big record's pennies on an album for "signed" artists.

I often only listen to radio stations not owned/ran by Clearwater. Phoenix was really good for this, there were a few independent radio station owners left, good luck anywhere else though.

Scythe said:

I hate to disagree, but there's a lot of shitty music out there. Everything sounds kind of the same on pop radio.....very few original artist out there, and most of your hit makers are just dancing chickens.

They don't write the songs, they have their vocals "enhanced", and generally lack talent. Instead they are pretty boy/girls that look good. Live they have to lip sync. These are not artist. These are not musicians. They are actors. They suck.

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Your problem is you're listening to the radio. Radio is full of tunes that are meant to be catchy in the short term but thrown away in the long term, it seems to be what makes the most money. I appreciate radio for what it is and often listen to it in my car, but beyond that it's not hard to find good music really, youtube, itunes, etc. You don't need to spend hours shuffling through a record store trying to find good music, it's all there on the internet, it's just not on the radio.

Megalith said:

The only good music left is movie and video game scores. It's the purest form of music you can find, immune to any kind of shitty commercial intent.

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This has been my new source for the last 1.5-2 years. Lots of cool and amazng new stuff to me, especially out of Japan. The problem is, you have to pirate it, because even the really popular stuff like Joe Hisaishi is damn near impossible to buy new here in America. And most of it (especially video games) is never offered as a stand alone product in the first place.

So luckily the 2 or 3 forums I hit up for music downloads haven't been taken off the web yet. And I imagine it's because it is doing more good then bad.

Now moving along, I agree with others that there are some really great modern music acts out there now-a-days. The issue, is that everything is too spread out now. It is very hard to know where to start. I feel like programs along the lines of iTunes, Spotify & Pandora could really do an awesome job if they deeply analyzed peoples listening choices and cross referenced them with others. Because I guarantee you there is someone out there who has your exact same tastes and has discovered things you don't know yet.

Spotify did get me on to Imagine Dragons, which I had never heard of until it popped up as a recommendation on Spotify one day.

I also stumbled across a band called Black Light White Light on Youtube one day and I was very impressed with them. They do not even have a Wikipedia page yet!

Spotify would not be considered piracy. Youtube would. However because of both, I legally purchased several albums.

You also have bands like Tool, who are still holding out on digital downloads. And their music doesn't exactly get a lot of radio play. There stuff is also not readily available at the more "popular" brick and mortar establishments. I first sampled the music "illegally" on Youtube to see if I would even like it. I then was only able to find the albums locally at Movie Trading Company.

I can't imagine how music is hard to find now. I can load up spotify and browse other people's lists. I can go to nme's web site. I can type random shit into pandora and be greeted with loads of good music. I find new acts on nearly a monthly basis to add to my rotation of long time stalwarts. Fuck, just look at related acts on wikipedia or see suggested links on youtube(although that tends to run a bit shallow). It's so easy to find music that fits your taste or expands your tastes now. Even my parents find interesting music at an absurd pace now that they've figured out the interwebs.

People have more open forums to bitch about music and youtube comment are a thing now. That adds to the negativity sometimes. But no good music or hard to find it? Bullshit.

Instruments and equipment to record them are incredibly cheap now meaning local acts sound pretty freakin' good even compared to like 10 years ago when I was more involved in local music.

Watching people try to explain how they would reshape the industry to really just support their own convenient habits is hilarious though. I love the torrent freak comment cesspool.

Spotify and other online radio often lead me back to bands or artist that were popular back in the 80s and 90s, or songs that I used to hear back then and almost forgotten about.

There are things that are very rare these days, such as rock band with outstanding guitarist. (not counting these huge bands from the 80s that are still active today of course). Good for you guys if you are able to find new young talent that still does the same genre you love. But I don't think you can apply that to everything.

Of course for other type of music such as pop rock, it's probably easier to find indie bands that make such music. Unfortunately some of my favorite indie band have the tendency of ending the band when they are at their prime. I guess it's not always easy when you are a small band.

Hornet said:

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Of course for other type of music such as pop rock, it's probably easier to find indie bands that make such music. Unfortunately some of my favorite indie band have the tendency of ending the band when they are at their prime. I guess it's not always easy when you are a small band.

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Some of those maturities and dysfunctions that can cause people to make really compelling music also tends to tear up bands. One thing I will admit is I don't know a lot of bands where I like more than 3 CDs in their library. Whether their lineup went through a major change or I just didn't find the evolution of their sound to be interesting. Just seems to be a pattern for me.

Scythe said:

I hate to disagree, but there's a lot of shitty music out there. Everything sounds kind of the same on pop radio.....very few original artist out there, and most of your hit makers are just dancing chickens.

They don't write the songs, they have their vocals "enhanced", and generally lack talent. Instead they are pretty boy/girls that look good. Live they have to lip sync. These are not artist. These are not musicians. They are actors. They suck.

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People don't care about "talent" or if it even sounds "good". So long as it is fucking loud enough and the light show is impressive enough people will come.

As someone who locally works theatre and band shows...well. Last year my city was a stop for the PINK "Truth About Love Tour". I joked backstage to all of my fellow stagehand pals that "The Truth About Love" sounds like a 747 on takeoff...because whenever she opened her mouth that is all you heard was 747-on-takeoff out of the woofers.

Skripka said:

People don't care...

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Every time someone makes a broad meaningless generalisation, a puppy dies.

Tudz said:

Every time someone makes a broad meaningless generalisation, a puppy dies.

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Well. What do you want me to say? They don't.

I see it every time I work a sold out pop show. So long as it is ridiculously loud and the light show is amazing enough they don't care. Even if all you can hear is a 747 on take off...they don't care. I worked a show of Hootie and Bighead once, where the subwoofers were malfunctioning and not putting out any sound at all....no one in the house noticed there was no bass to speak of. That is the extent to which pop audiences actually care about sound.

Almost all these pop artists without a multimillion dollar sound system driven by pro audio engineers cannot do a show...they're utterly dependent on an army of professional technicians, and if the sound power cuts out they're a nobody. I've seen it happen, and these folks would rather cut their show short than try to do a show without someone cleaning things up to sound good at the audio console.

"People" would mean basically everyone. However what you're actually talking about is a subset of "people", not all "people" are like that, the ones who aren't are not the people going to the shows that are set up like that

Even among bands that are popular, not all of them are that bad. Some popular bands that are on the radio, someone earlier mentioned Imagine Dragons, constantly on the radio, Mumford and Sons, constantly on the radio (though personally I think their popular songs aren't their best ones), Passenger, Of Monsters and Men (have pretty good live shows as well as being on the radio), Alt-J, awesome band, really unique and catchy music, I would never have known about them if I didn't hear Breezeblocks on the radio.

Not to say radio is great, they play the same songs over and over again so even if they were good you get sick of them. But good music exists even on the radio.

Sure, there's some shit music out there that is popular, but even in the popular arena, there is some good music. People just have way too much of a pessimistic and "get off my lawn" attitude.