Please Present Proof of Purchase

Buying and selling music... man what a huge topic. I don't really know enough about the industry itself and its practices to comment on that. Of course there's the readings which we were given which were a bit confusing and more than a little infuriating. The issue seems to be that there is very little respect for the artist and their music. While it is understandable that the company needs to make money, it would seem as though the fall prey to the capitalist curse - the exploitation of those who have less power and control for the purpose of greater profit. But this is prevalent in all areas and industries in our society. As such I don't think it's a musical issue as much as it is an economic one.

That said I'm kind of torn on the idea of selling music in the first place. I suppose it's because on the one hand, I feel as though music is something very personal, to be created for expression and expression alone. As a consumer you don't really "buy" a song, what you pay for it the ability to listen to it. I suppose there is the issue of owning the "rights" to songs, but that seems amoral to me. The song belongs to its creator. Full stop. You can't really pay for the ownership of a song because you aren't paying for the experiences and feelings that helped create it, merely the right to reproduce and distribute that sound. Here I'm very biased though because I would never want to give up the rights to a song I created. It's something that I'm choosing to share with the world and that's something I wouldn't want to lose control of.

On the other hand it's necessary to acknowledge that both artists and music companies need to make money. While I believe that it's wrong to sell music that it's necessary to fund the distribution and production processes that make it available to us in the first place - and feed the artist too! That said, I DO NOT believe that this need is something that should influence the creative process. To me it is naught but a necessary evil and one that should not affect a musician's ability to play the music they want. To do so removes that whole expressive, personal touch and without that, why call it music?