Music Devaluation and Piracy
In a recent TV report from the UK, "covermount CDs" (CDs given away with magazines) were said to have contributed in large part to the devaluation of music. These freebees, the critics say, often give people no reason to purchase the albums that the sampler tracks are from.

I take the other side of this argument. Lately, some of the best CDs in my collection have been compilations of several artists featuring the best tracks from many styles of music. A compilation, if done well, can serve as a **shopping list** for music enthusiasts and give them an opportunity to hear a variety of stuff before making a purchase.

There's also a difference between "devaluation" and selling something for a fair price. With something as subjective as music, it is very hard to pin down a fair price to begin with. I own CDs that I bought for $16 that are musically and materially much less meaningful than other works that cost $12 or less. Considering retail price is fluid, the price paid says little about the value of the contents.

Sometimes stores purposely devalue music with no regard for the actual content of a CD. Music distributors like Borders and Barnes & Noble will often mark down music to ridiculously low prices, just to move product. For example, I recently found a cool CD of Eastern European music for $1, right along side some local CDs that were marked down to $1. All of these CDs originally retailed for between $12 and $15 dollars. And it could be argued that programs like American Idol have done more to devalue music by creating disposable acts.

The term "Piracy" is too emotionally charged to be of much use, and I rarely care to comment on it. The general definition is "The unauthorized use or reproduction of copyrighted or patented material." In common use, "piracy" usually implies an intent to profit from another's work, which is wrong in my opinion. However, the gap between "authorized" and "unauthorized" reproduction is a murky mess. Copyright does give us the right to make MP3 files of our own CDs for our own use, such as creating large compilations for travel and convenience.

I think most people would agree it is wrong to create MP3s of CDs that you own and charge people for access to those MP3s. It is even more wrong for people to create copies of other people's music and claim it is their own. (That topic gets into copyright topics that are outside of the scope of this narrative.) But is it wrong to create MP3s of CDs you own with the intent of giving the music to others (not selling it)? Essentially, that is piracy by current definitions. So that means that every garage band that shares music with their band members to learn cover songs or get exposed to new music is pirating!?!?. Something doesn't seem right about that. I think musicians need to take control of the rules applied to their products, and that this point of sharing music within a band situation is worth looking at carefully.

I've often thought, much to everyone's surprise, that the music industry has no reason to complain about CD copying. Perhaps if the industry was more careful about how the technology was implemented in the first place, CD copying wouldn't be as easy these days. Then again, some 12-year-old in Germany might crack the copy protection anyway, so that might be a pointless argument. The point, if there is one, is that we can't go back. And consumers shouldn't be made to pay for the oversights of the industry. As it is, customers pay through the nose for constant upgrades of outdated equipment trying to keep up with the Joneses.

Music fans should not be punished by record companies or by artists for distributing MP3s. As long as the technology exists to copy CDs, MP3 distribution probably won't stop. I am more concerned about the music industry's inability to accurately track radio and television performances than I am copying of MP3 files (another issue for another article). I am also not going to concern myself with copy protection technologies that are going to be defeated by the above mentioned 12-year-old German techno-wizard.

The industry has continually failed to see the implications of technological advancements, so I don't think the industry can complain when weaknesses are exploited. DVDs can now be copied. Who would have guessed? Like Prohibition, telling someone they can't do something isn't going to stop them, and it may just insight them to do it more.

While traveling with some people in California and Oregon, I was introduced to a band from what appeared to be a pirated cassette. The band was Hayseed Dixie, and shortly after I got back home I looked them up on the web and added their CD to my Wishlist on Amazon.com.

To music fans...

If you have enough time on your hands to search for, burn, label and distribute MP3 files, perhaps you should be thinking about hooking up with bands and artists to do grassroots promotion. You could increase your musical library, and you would be helping artists at the local level where they need it the most. (Interested parties should contact me).

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