I'm going to kick this off the usual way I kick these kinds of articles off: if you're not buying music from artists you "love" so much, then you're not putting any money in their pockets. You got the product, but you didn't pay for it. You stole it. Korn drummer Ray Luzier agrees with me because he's a smart guy and I'm a smart guy. We're both smart guys (though one of us is richer than the other)!
Luzier was recently talking to Dalton Castle of the Albany radio station Q103 when the topic of piracy came up. He then launched into a pretty justified tirade about people flat out stealing he and his bands' efforts in the studio… because hey man, spending $10 is killer.
"You know what?! It's one of those things where… I'm very… Here's the thing: My last band, Army of Anyone, that had Stone Temple Pilots guys and Richard [Patrick] from Filter. This was the first time I saw someone steal music. They brought a CD-R up to me and said, 'Ray, would you sign this?' And they're waiting in the rain. I'm, like, 'Sure, Come here.' And [I went], 'Wait a minute. That's a blank CD.' [And he said], 'Oh, yeah. I ripped this off my friend.' And I'm, like, 'You stole…? My record is $9.99. You couldn't afford a 10-dollar bill? We just worked four and a half months.' I lost my shit. This was, like, '06. This was when it really started just taking place… I yelled at the guy for, like, ten minutes. It was so bad [my ARMY OF ANYONE bandmate] Robert DeLeo had to, like, pull me back, 'cause I was leaning into the guy. 'It's ten dollars. Who bought you those shoes?' You know… I was just out of my mind."
Can we just stop here for a moment and agree that this is an unbelievably rude slap in the face to Luzier? If you're that guy and you're reading this, I hope you feel silly right now.
"The thing is, with the newer generation, the kids don't really understand that it's taking or stealing. They're, like, 'What? I'm at your freakin' show.' And I'm, like, 'Yeah. But our record's ten bucks. Can't you just go out and…?' I'm one of those old dudes that still does that. I go out and come home from Best Buy with, like, four CDs. It's all about supporting the artist. It's, like, we work hard on our records, man. We don't sit in the studio and waste time. It's, like, you pour your heart and soul and your blood and all this stuff into this recording, and you put it out there, and there's sites like Spotify… but, whatever… We're not gonna stop it. It's technology; I get it. Whatever… I'm just saying, to the fans out there, if you really love your art and people you support, go buy the freakin' record. How hard is it?"
Agreed.
iTunes and Amazon are constantly having sales where you'd literally have to spend between $5 and $7 on a record. In fact, Amazon is having a huge sale right now, which we spotlighted yesterday.
I wouldn't compare Spotify to downloading illegally, because they do actually pay artists for song streams. Streams that fans could find elsewhere and listen to for free, and where the artist would not get any royalty.
Just throwing this out there too- if you're the type that says "yeah I'll just go buy merchandise at shows and steal the album," congratulations! You're uninformed. Labels know where to send artists on tour by record sales. This is a proven fact. If you're not buying the record then you're not going to be able to see them on tour. So there's that.
Just support your artists, okay?
Video Content Presented by Qello Concerts:
[via Blabbermouth]
