Gloerich on New Media and Community Management

I already know how I do now own my music: I own cd’s. That’s about it.

I have no iTunes songs or mp3′s from Amazon. Why? Because it doesn’t feel like I own the music, so that’s no upgrade from my illegal MP3′s . And what happens when Apple or Amazon shuts down its store? What do I actually own when I download an MP3? According to Amazon, they grant me the non-transferable right for personal use. I can’t sell it, so I don’t own it. Do they license it? No because if I my hard drive crashes with my freshly downloaded mp3′s on it, tough luck, I need to buy them again. Same thing for Apple iTunes.

So why the hell would I wanna buy the rights to download a song only once?

Does downloading music legally make me feel better than downloading it illegaly? Ironically, it’s just the other way around. Some prive bittorrent fora are just really nice to communicate with other fans (Dutch) who share the music they love so they can talk with people who might love that music as well.

The Big Question

What kind of rights is music gonna have in the near future? Is every band gonna release its songs for free and finds a way to make money on hard to copy experiences, like concerts and personalized items? Is every euro (sure doesn’t sounds as cool as dollar) I spend now, a waste of my money because the music I’m buying will be free in a few years time? Some of my cd’s are already skipping parts of the songs.

I don’t want to buy the same CD over and over again. Bob Dylans Blonde on Blonde is a masterpiece, obviously well worth the €9,99. But don’t think twice about it, I am not gonna buy that cd over and over again. So were do I turn to when this cd starts to skip tracks? Not to iTunes, not to Amazon, not even to the record shop around the corner. You guessed it right: I fire up my browser and point it to The Pirate Bay or one of the private fora. Which is illegal.

I don’t want to be a thief

But they make it so hard not to be one. I spend a fair amount of money on music and concert tickets and I am still a thief. And you know what, I know I still don’t know amazing bands touring in my region because record labels fail to inform me about them because they don’t know what I like.