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Originally Posted by The Watcher
I like downloading to sample music, but if I like something I'll buy it...... I think it's important to support bands, labels, brick and mortar stores, and the like...... .
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Yes and no. Does buying records necessarily even support the band, especially through major labels? How many brick and mortar stores are not just corporate scum? Its like Dead Prez said, "They sell our tapes like dope"
I think steve albini already elaborated quite well how horrifying a vampire major label and mainstream music is. The best potential was in the early 2000s when the major distributors broke off the big label monopoly when they realized they could make money even if they distributed small numbers of units from independent record labels and even DIY artists. For the distributors, every flipped unit counts and that access put a lot of previously hard to find music on the shelves of even big box chain retail outlets. It was like Nevermind wave times a million.. This was in the brief moment before the wave crashed and receded, and in its wake now we have the internet music industry, which is just as cut throat and scandalous, but in its way, also provides an even BETTER way for artists to make their own money directly. Even radiohead is in it now, making they money DIRECTLY, fuck the label.
So with downloading, I say fuck iTunes. Download your tracks that you buy directly from the indy labels I'm sure most of you listen to and support, and the rest, pirate that shit, destroy the bogus capitalist process! The only way to support a band directly is the old fashioned way, go to shows and buy merchandise.