So, recently that mongo from Dillinger Escape Plan that flings shit at people and generally flexes and beats his chest while the rest of his nerds get specific behind him came out and said some shit about illegal downloading with regards to t shirt sales, which of course made a bunch of people say things like “This guy’s right and thank god for his candor” and made a bunch more people say “what a dumb [un-evolved/rockstar/entitled/shithead] dildo.” The truth is, both camps are kind of right. I, personally have been unwittingly dragged into this debate by simply stating that I don’t like being told by lazy, self serving journalists to oppose things without coming to my own conclusions (hello, SOPA debate!). But, while I was placed on the bench alongside Lars Ulrich by a couple of hacky journalist turds, and found guilty of being some kind of plutocratic, anti-fan asshole by a bunch of people who already hate me, I didn’t really at any point elucidate my own opinion regarding file sharing. So, in honor of the guy that throws shit at people running his mouth, here’s my definitive take on file sharing…This one, you can hold me to:
File sharing is an inevitable part of the world we live in. To complain about it is to complain about days only having twenty four hours or women and men having different ideas about sex/furniture/etc. It’s here and it’s here to stay. Long ago, people made lots of money shoeing horses. Once cars came along, these motherfuckers were out of a job. Those horseshoers had the opportunity to change, to adapt to the world around them and get a new job, or to whither and die, bitterly cursing the car and suggesting that even though horses can’t go faster than about 37 MPH, and cars don’t require brawny men to reshoe them every few weeks, that people should somehow still decide that paying for horses and their accoutrements is the righteous thing to do.
That’s obviously stupid. Now, in the future, we see how dumb and misguided the poor asshole horseshoer that refused to adapt was, and that’s the same predicament that musicians are in right now. Whatever your opinion on filesharing is, you gotta kind of get with the times or die. There’s no room for your complaining about people who do or don’t buy your t shirt and/or their dumb arguments for why file sharing actually helps artists, which, it arguably does up to a certain point. None of that shit matters at all. It’s like suggesting that you want to go back to when humans had gills. Go ahead and bitch about it, man. Let’s see how much changes.
The truth is, music is free now, and if you don’t like it, well, what are you doing making music for public consumption? You know the deal. Even if you’re old. Even if you put out your first record in the 60’s, you’ve had the last decade to deal with the changes and death throes of your industry, so don’t complain now. What are you, retarded? You can’t walk into a log flume and then bitch once you get wet. Don’t go to a Lisa Lampinelli concert and expect to not be ridiculed. That’s the game, daddio. Get with it or get fucked.
Now, that said, stealing music is gonna bum the horseshoers out, and the people who do it, who make the above arguments, while they’re correct, are contributing to the decline in the ability of the music industry, at all levels, to nurture career artists. If you don’t care about that, that makes sense, because a lot of career artists become petulant shitheads as time wears on, and new bands are always exciting and refreshingly free of entitlement. But to pretend that the notion of free music and the declining longevity of musicians’ careers aren’t deeply intertwined is just faulty.
There are three big notions that help facilitate the notion that ‘stealing’ music is fine (that is, if you’re trying to justify it, as opposed to the broader public opinion which is ‘eh, fuck it’) :
1) I go to the shows and buy shirts and I wouldn’t have done that without first downloading the CD
2) My job fucking sucks. Being in a band is cool. If people in bands don’t like that shit, they can come do my shitty job.
3) These dicks, who don’t even really work, have plenty of money. Fuck them. Who do they think they are?
On an indie (or punk[!]) level, this thought process is bolstered by the young, hungry and awesome bands emerging who get into doing it because they’re young and idealistic, and besides, they really can’t reasonably expect to make any money doing anything at all. Fuck, they just want people to hear the music. They give their CD’s away free right there at the shows!!! These bands fit the “pirate’s” (and I hate using that term…I’m not trying to demonize anyone) worldview: idealistic rockers who are doing it without cause to worry about any sort of financial recompense. Awesome bands without fans, bands without expectations. They’re the very evidence that the downloader can point to and say ‘dude, no one’s ever heard of [some dumb band]. I downloaded the record, came to the show and bought a shirt and I’ve contributed to them being able to have a cool fall, seeing cool places in the Midwest playing music in the finest VFW halls and basements the region has to offer, which is more than I’ve done this fall, so fuck you guys for suggesting I’m the bad guy. The band didn’t care. Now I’m a fan and I’ll continue to support them. Thank you, illegal downloading!’
That’s cool and it’s 100% accurate. Those brand new bands will always be there, too. And that’s what makes the whole thing so slippery and crazy. If I can address these points one by one, I think I’ll feel okay about signing off on this tirade:
1) Yeah. That’s true. Who cares? As in, who cares either way? I don’t know. I never was into this to squeeze the maximum amount of money possible out of anyone. I never went into this thinking about how the shirt sales would bolster the record sales or whatever. I just like putting on shows and I like putting out records. Buy the shirt if you like the shirt. Don’t if you don’t. I used to make a very tiny bit of money from putting out records. I don’t any more. It’s not like writing songs has changed. It’s not like I love doing it any less. It’s just one small, fairly insignificant aspect of the whole process that is, unequivocally and literally less rewarding than it once was. It has nothing to do with motivating factors and it’s not even a huge part of the entire job. BUT, don’t you understand why people who make music and get paid for it like that and prefer it to not getting paid? It’s one thing to live through a global shift…it’s another thing to decry people who live through it as wack pussies because they’re bummed that something that was rad is now gone. By this same measure, saying “oh, pooor baby…do you not get any record royalties anymore? Adapt or die” is akin to saying “ooooh, are your pooor precious polar ice caps melting? Well, that’s how the world is now. Adapt or die.” It’s true. It’s shitty to say, but it’s true. It’s a harsh reality that people have to deal with if they’re gonna be alive in this day and age. And, it’s not as specious as you may think. Both thoughts are wistful for a recent, but bygone and never to return era when struggling lifeforms thrived. It’s fine. I’m not saying that anyone has to sit around and listen to anyone bitch about anything, but isn’t the whole ‘adapt or die’ thing just KIND OF cruel to throw in someone’s face when they’re only venting frustration at existing in a changing world?
2) Yeah. People in bands DO do shitty jobs on top of being in a band. Not that many people in bands really get to be too scot free with that shit. I was fortunate enough to be able to spend a period of my life only being in a band. As a result, I had no home, no belongings and no place to go when we weren’t on tour. It was great, but it was also pretty Bear Grylls style. Being in a band that makes money is a spectacular opportunity to sleep on floors, eat at gas stations and ruin your intestines/liver/social life but it’s fun as shit and you’re right. It’s a blast. That’s why there will always be young bands willing to do it for nothing. When I started doing this, I expected nothing because I’d never made any money doing anything ever at all. I was able to keep doing it because suddenly money started coming in. Now there’s no money and I can’t do it like I used to. That’s cool. All eras end, and I’d be a fool to think something as marginal as The Lawrence Arms was gonna be a career. I wish I could play those songs as my only job forever, but I can’t. Please don’t mistake this for complaining. I just liked doing it and if I had a wish, It’s be to be able to do it forever. That’s not the way things work though (free music notwithstanding). I’d happily get a job in your shitty office, but my work experience is “was in a band for 20 years” and that doesn’t really open a lot of doors. This shit was 100% my choice and I’m 100% proud of what I’ve done and where I am, but uh…I guess what I’m saying is that Yeah, being in a band is great, but I don’t know if it’s so great that you can just glibly dismiss musicians’ loss of revenue stream as something they deserve because their lives are so fun. That’s a little bit callous.
3) I saw that thing where Billie Joe pretended he wasn’t Justin Beber and yeah, I felt as embarrassed as anyone. He was dildos. It was excruciatingly lame. Musicians, that .01% of musicians who are rich, tend to stroll around like they’re WAY more important than they are, which makes younger, poorer musicians emulate them as though acting like a dick is some sort of requirement for the job, and ultimately, it makes everyone look bad. The fact is, music is not something that makes anyone any money ever. People say “you wanna be rich, go into something besides music” and they’re totally right. People also say “the whole idea of musicians selling their recordings and living off them is an idiosyncratic phenomenon of the last 50 years. The world is just righting itself” as though musicians are the plague that culture needs to be vaccinated against. Hey, man. You know what else is only 50 years old? TV, movies and pop culture at large. I understand that musicians are lucky enough that their craft has been co-opted by pop culture, unlike painters or novelists, who will be destined to be poor no matter how beloved they become. BUT, that’s no reason to just hate motherfuckers who are lucky enough to be able to do it. It’s a cool living. People want in.
You, you right there, reading this. YOU bitch about how you are salty that you can’t fuck that chick/dude or get that promotion or go on that trip or grow a bit or not be bald or fat or whatever, despite the fact that bitching isn’t gonna change anything. Is it SO FUCKING AWFUL that some shit-slinging gorilla pines impotently for the days when people bought his shit? I mean, I get it. Those times are done, grandpa. If you look, you’ll see that I’ve been saying that for over a decade. I know what’s up, AND I never made much money making records back when that shit was apparently the gateway to all the gold and strawberry cocaine you can carry. I just don’t understand why people who insist on fighting on behalf of free music (which is different from regular, everyday downloaders, just by the way…I’m talking about the people who HATE the DEP guy and who HATE Lars Ulrich [I hate Lars Ulrich] and who jumped on me when I suggested that people should read things before they sign them, the people who equate any frustration with wildly anti-freedom sentiments etc) why do they refuse to acknowledge that there’s a legit reason to be bummed on the musicians’ side? One team lost the world series. The losers can’t be down? They have to pretend to love the winners with no mention of how cool it was back in the day when they were in the running to win and no one really felt like they were losing? Fuck that. Selling records was one of the most fun ways to make money I’ve ever experienced. It was FUN to get money to give people things that they enjoyed. Was it a fair system? I don’t know. But I liked it a lot. It’s like getting a blowjob. You don’t ever DESERVE your blowjob. BUT you enjoy getting them, and once the blowjobs stop coming, it’s a bummer. “But I LOVED getting blowjobs” you say. “Then learn to suck your own dick” is the response.
Is it unfair that I got to play music in my 20’s and someone else was digging ditches? Fuck yeah it is. But what am I gonna do? In the words of your dad, life is not fair. I never expected to make a dime playing music, but it’s a bummer that it’s no longer even a possibility. It’s so fucking stupid that this even needs to be explained. Fuck the internet and fuck everything. I’m getting a coffee and going outside.
PS I’ve never met a musician who wanted to charge 22 bucks for a CD, but in the 90’s I met a whole shit ton of assholes who absolutely salivated at that idea, who had record company names on their business cards, but who never ever picked up a guitar. Just sayin.
guy. dad. husband. uncle. dog master. brother. son. uh...bad sleeper. some farts.
Porn used to not be free and now it is and there are more porn stars than ever.
So lets all JO to free music
What about 25 dollars for a slapstick shirt? Seemed a bit steep.
I’m not really seeing the horse shoe analogy. In that instance, demand went away- people simply didn’t want or need horse shoes anymore. There was nothing illegal going on either, as there is in piracy.
There is no lack of demand for recorded music. The opposite, actually.
People rip off music because they believe they can get away with it. There is no need to make it more complicated than that.
xo
I steal a little if its a band i dont know and really want to here them. I fee l bad sometimes, but i also have over 500 cds and about 100 lps. I spend almost all my money on music related shit. But bands i love i buy everything they got. I know most people who steal are not like that. Also some bands and labels are doing some good things like adding dvds of live shows with the cd. And adding download codes with lps. All i can say is thank you to labels like asianman. The shit that pisses me off is this. I bought twp lps from byo records that i already owned on cd, so i gave them my money twice, neither lp played all the way through that has never happened to me before, i emailed them twice and never got a response. In my career that shit puts you out of business. I mean im the guy who preoders shit, whats your problem. You want all my money like a business should but when you fuck up its sorry were just a small punk label cant help you.
Thoughts on Kris Roe and his douche nozzle-esque meltdown?
Yea bk, please write about that.
Tantrums are in! ‘Cause that worked out well for Billie Joe. What a dildozer.
I dunno. Billie is pretty much exonerated for life far as I’m concerned:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgumG6Oeg1w
Cunt-y Kris Roe certainly doesn’t have anything like that in the bank to balance the scales.
Joe’s over Roe’s
Bren would never go off on Neil, because NEIL.
It’s funny to hear the media compare these dildo boy bands to The Beatles; lets face it people will never ever sell that many records again!!!
I buy my music.
“pretended” he wasnt justin bieber?? oohh..cuz he purty much iiiisss….gotcha gotcha,sick burn bee.”he was dildos”? oh like
“he was banana’s” filtered through the sick n twisted mind of beexden. solid stuff man. you blog like a man no older than 32. loved the big WAY too. next time ya oughta stretch it out dawg,like “he thought he was SOOOO cool”. I highly doubt you were more embarrassed than eli caterer though. He seems like such a practical fellow. goddamn, anybody else peep the sea scallop smile on chris mcloughlah on tobys twitter pic area? that cat had no choice but to be the brooding one eh? whew! jeez grandma butterbeets you look happy as fuck!
“Don’t go to a Lisa Lampanelli concert and not expect 60 minutes of someone exceedingly fat and unfunny reasserting her black cock obsession-by-necessity”
fixed
:.( fucking sickining thoughts. Money-fucking love/ hate thing. At least you get to do what u love. ?
Pretty sure you won’t offend anyone with ‘pirates’. Seems to be a badge of honor amongst same in my experience. Specious is a good word; thanks
oh, jeez Matt. Firstly, there is a lack of demand. There’s no demand for quality packaging, record store culture or the commerce that goes along with music. It could even be argued that, with the advent of protools, paying money for fancy studios to do more or less what you can do in your bathroom at home is kind of going out of vogue (at least in the lower echelons of the industry). Secondly, I’m well aware of the tangible differences in the analogy. Fuck, you don’t put songs on horses’ feet either. My point is that there’s a changing world out there and you can get with it or get fucked. Pointing to the morality, legality or righteousness of your cause will most likely just make you more upset. Lord knows it’s not gonna make people suddenly start buying records again. If you think the darkest thing on the internet, the thing that needs the most policing, is some kind of torrent spot where kids steal songs, well, uh…that’s a sweetly naive notion. The internet is dark, very dark and if somehow people were able to start effectively policing it, there are a few sites I’d want shut down (as a father and a human) before they got to the place where people rip Oh! Calcutta!
My point is, there’s no way at this point to put the toothpaste back in the tube. It ain’t happening, dude. No more than people are gonna go back to riding horses. Morality has nothing to do with it. Self control has nothing to do with it and regulation will not effectively do anything (if we knew, as a species, how to regulate the darker side of human behavior, we’d have won a drug war in at least one country on earth, for example). Hence, get with the times or get busy dying. that’s all I’m saying here. It’s not a notion I’m particularly fond of, Matt. But I’m not gonna sit here and pretend it ain’t true either.
Brendan-
I never said it was ‘the darkest place on the internet’. I simply said that people do it because they can get away with it. If they couldn’t, they’d either buy or do without. It is not a stretch of logic to say that, IMO.
My boxers aren’t in a twist about this, as I went around and around on this issue a long time ago and have moved on.
As far as using Pro Tools to make a great record in a bathroom, I haven’t heard it yet, but you could always be the first.
Smooches,
Matt
oh,you wacky old queens stop it now ya hear…
So wait Matt Allison is so bored he reads these comments & is now an Internet “troll” as u socks would say,, can somebody give these punks a nice kid to punch or maybe a side project so he will SHUt YEr STANKIn TRAP!! Matt.. If u wanna speak get a blog.. That none of us will read..
*wishes upon a star that kanthackit follows his own parting advice*
Brendan, what the hell are you doing on that “New Girl” show? you better bang zooey
Hehe! Not unlike my “B whatchu doin on that ferry boat in Dark Knight??’ of yesteryear. Possibly the dumbest joke template in existence huh?
If I care about the musicians as people, I’ll buy their music. (Case in point: When I met Brendan in Toronto on his birthday, I waltzed up while he was writing his setlist and said, star-struckedly, “Happy birthday, man”. He [admittedly drunk] turned to look at me and immediately opened his arms for a hug [which, admittedly, caused me to break a sweat and fangirl out a little], which is legitimately cool. I’ve also met a bunch of other people over the years whom I greatly admire and who produce amazing work and don’t make enough for it, in my opinion. [Case #2: Danny Vapid. Class act right there. Love that dude. He was also very kind when I went and interrupted his pre-show beer.] Musicians who genuinely appreciate their fans deserve my hard-earned bucks.) If I want to own some music by that 0.01% of musicians who are rich as fuck, I don’t feel a shred of guilt about ripping it off.
Shits like littering… okay as long as it’s only you but totally shitty if everyone does it.
Lol
Dear Brendan Kelly,
Ive bought Lawrence Arms CDs, Ive paid to go to Lawrence Arms shows, Ive bought Lawrence arms shirts and hats, and Ive even illegally downloaded Lawrence arms songs. And just like downloading your songs, if I masturbate 4 times in one day, im not exactly hyped on that in retrospect but ill be damned if it wasnt great while it was happening. So Brendan, Im sorry I downloaded your songs, but I had alot of fun listening to your shitty singing for the last decade so fuck it, Ill sleep well tonight. I know you understand why I did it. I did it because the Lawrence arms are good enough to buy and good enough to download. Alot of bands arent worth either one.
Tangentially related, I saw a news clip a few minutes ago of a Maine Zumba-Instructor-Turned-Prostitute, Alexis Wright, being charged with 100 counts of various crimes. A former student on the clip said a search of her name would yield numerous pornographic videos. She was right, and minutes later there it was — free clips of her fucking herself with a popsicle, and another of a guy eating her pussy while another guy was blowing him. Free is good for some and bad for others, and duality in general is a beautiful thing.
Buddy I dunno if anyone’s told ya this recently but, fuck you dude. lol
kewl roflma
Sorry didn’t want to be anonymous…or leave out the “O” LOFL
I mean in a good way. Alexis Wright seems pretty ugly-hot
So, I’ll flat out admit to pirating everything and everything Brendan Kelly related. I’ve hunted around for physical copies of your CD’s but haven’t really had luck. Digital purchasing is just not something I usually do with music.
My point being this: I’ve loved your music. I want to give you money. Straight up, flat out GIVE YOU MONEY.
Is there a legitimate, easy way of doing this? Or do I have to bump into you one day and shove a C-note somewhere it’ll fit?
B-b-b-BRAINstorm it Sandro, till you think of a way/to hit our boy wif c-notes, really brighten his day!/”Brendan. SINCERELY. I love ALL that you’ve done.”/”Uh, ee-e-th-thanks man. I, oo–g..gotta run.”
out
Agreed with Sandro, no point denying it, I’ve illegally downloaded a LOT of music, including yours and I do feel bad about it, but damn it.. it’s so easy. Do you have a paypal or something? where I can donate some money in return for all the quality shit I’ve stolen? Cuz I would prefer to just straight out give you money rather than buy albums I already (illegally) own.
If it’s any consolation, I did buy a lawrence arms Tshirt, Hoodie and DVD after pirating the albums.
As a follow up to my last comment, I havent downloaded anything in a few years and frankly have no ambitions to do it again. Not because morality struck me, but because downloading files is kind of harder than it once was and me being a person with a paycheck finds it easier to just buy the very small list of music I want now. When I was a younger dick-headier version of myself I downloaded stuff because I could hardly pay my 7th of the rent let alone buy CDs that could potentially make my ears vomit. Two days ago I ordered the new propagandhi album. Granted I listened to it on youtube first, but I would have bought it anyways. Paid in full, let them convert it over to canadian rubels or whatever and then mail me an actual CD! Being adult is pretty rad.
I submit to you this:
Think about your demographic. Id hazard a guess that most classical music buffs arent illegally downloading their symphonic whatevers. But theres alot of college aged ill manered coke-habit nurturing retail-part-timers living in barley legal fringe neighborhood apartments that download Lawrence Arms albums because theres a fucking hierarchy to vices and cocaine and pussy are gonna beat out possessing the liner notes from a guided tour of chicago. Im not saying its right. I hate it. Alot less people take music seriously now that its completely disposable.
Blimey Thanks Citizen! Real eye-opening stuff! /saaaawcasm
Agreed good last line u freak.. Can’t hack it supports this message..
“let them convert it over to canadian rubels or whatever and then mail me an actual CD! Being adult is pretty rad.”
LOLz. Made my day.
WhoOoa! It’s, like, attack of the 50 ft. consciences man! What a strange coincidence! No sooner does Beeeks post his perspective on the music industry paradigm shift then several kind-hearted offers to send him bread through Paypal crop up! I mean, I’m sure these proposals would havee sprung up regardless, uh, just needed a REMINDER is all! eeeeeee (rolls eyes)
No I wouldn’t have otherwise just one day woke up and thought “hmm I better pay the man in return for the music I’ve stolen” and I don’t pretend that this proposal would have sprung up regardless, of course it wouldn’t have. Maybe all i needed was something to open my eyes and make me feel a little guilty. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.
Recently I’ve seen 2 things that prompted me to buy/preorder CDs I probably wouldn’t have bought otherwise: CDs bundled with shirts and other stuff, and autographed CDs. I think that in this day and age of easily attainable free music the way of the future is to offer something in addition to just the cd (especially if it’s something people can’t get anywhere but with the cd.)
i cant say as i give a shit about autographed cds by people ive never met when its only a marketing tool. i mean, good on these people who want to sit and write their name on 500 cd booklets, but nothing feels authentic about it.
now, if i get a personalized note from a band that i played video games with after a show, or look at an lp that a friend had signed for me at a show i couldnt make it to, that has a certain sentimental value to me.
i guess ultimately, i’d rather just shake their hand, say good show and give brendan a hangover.
If you’re so fucking “real”, telling everyone how it is, why do you post anonymously as JadedPunkHulk, why don’t you just own all the shit you spew about everyone else.
Bahaha. Bahahaha. It’s funny that a) this accusation exists and b) it’s so angry. COIL SMASH
Arbitrary accusations rooted in faggoty intuition always hold up to scrutiny, plus it’s not like he’s gleefully shit talked all manner of people/things ostensibly as himself on his own blog from its inception, or anything. SLAY em, Columbo!