As some of you guys may know, I'm a music student currently in my final year of uni. I'm writing a dissertation on music file sharing and the music industry, and I made up a quick survey that I hope will give me an insight on how my social circle get their vast swathes of music they keep on various bits and pieces of technology they keep on their person.

If you choose to do this, you are completely anonymous and the survey does not track IPs

My thanks to you in advance for doing this - I'm going to open this up to discussion on file sharing/music industry, but keep in mind the board rules on no admission or links to illegal downloads of any sort. You can do that in my survey!

EDIT: And here's the finished product! I'm afraid I just couldn't include the answers to some of the questions, but if I ever see you I will of course buy you a drink still!

https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0Aa-O9WgVySV_ZGN2a3B4aDhfNGRwMjZuZ2Yy&hl=en_GB

I would definitely appreciate a drink, in reference to Q7 :V

Does it still count if it's copyrighted but the author releases it free of charge?

Well, I won't be cashing in that free drink for another 5 years. Not legally in the US anyway.
Does using YouTube Downloader count as illegal?

I'm essentially trying to say do you illegally download music - I'm discussing how bands like radiohead and NIN do stuff like release their album for whatever the user decides to pay (i.e. from free to ridiculous) or in the case of NIN, leak their own album to protest how expensive it was to buy.

Problem is, earning a living as a band is tricky - the media costs, tour costs, studio costs all mount up - Radiohead and NIN are minted so they can do that, but with a new band it's a lot harder.

Recording nowadays can be done very well in a bedroom with some pretty cheap equipment, and I'm arguing that social networking allows greater exposure to the world, but at the end of the day actually being a successful band requires the presence of a label backing them, and they can't continue being successful off the back of bedroom recordings and facebook events.

Unless you're really really ♥♥♥♥ clever.

Hyper - I would argue yes, as you're circumventing technology that prevents you from accessing the song, which falls under the digital millennium copyright act. Funnily enough circumventing technology that prevents you from copying a song isn't covered under the DMCA under "fair use". So perhaps if it's for personal use only, and you don't send it to other people it may be legal - but hey I'm a musician not a lawyer.

Some anonymous answers from my friends so far:

I laughed so hard at the last one

Might have to take into account the vast amounts of music people get legally through the method I mentioned above. Apart from that, you might have to take into account that some people might have to wait a little while to take you up on your offer of shouting them at the pub (buying them a drink, in case that happens to be Australia exclusive slang - I'm not sure).

Well if they're releasing stuff for free, then it doesn't really fall under what I want to discuss, which is the fact that:

A) We've gotten far too used to getting something for free that we should otherwise be paying for.

B) The Music Industry has spent the past 15 years digging their heels in against using the internet to distribute music because their precious distribution networks are now ♥♥♥♥.

C) The Music Industry have screwed over artist for the past 100 years, and neither the bands nor the fans are happy with them.

But yeah, if/when you ever meet me, you can get a free drink, I have no idea when that will happen. If you want to see my dissertation let me know and I'll email it to you.

By little while I meant long while. As in the several years it will take them to reach drinking age.

Hmmm, I figure, why pay for what you can get for free? And I only go after label bands, like Reiter or Lordi. Other than that, if it's an indie band or anything like that, I usually don't like the music anyway, so I don't typically pirate that ♥♥♥♥. And not literally '♥♥♥♥', but 'stuff'.

Oh, and one thing I forgot to add in the survey: Making music, writing, making games etc. should be done as a hobby, unless you think you're good enough to live by the money it makes. Entertainment is not always needed so you've got no insurance that you'll get profit, unlike other jobs where you do physical work / not entertainment. If you're gonna try to use entertainment as a full job, and then complain about not getting money for various reasons it's basically your own fault.

Oh, saw this the first time but I was at school and it vanished for a bit. Done.
I'll have a double if you'd be so kind.

If I ever meet you guys I will most definitely buy you all a drink - Thank you to all of you that did fill my survey in, it's enlightening to see the results and answers you've all given.

I'll be putting up my dissertation soon, It's almost in finished draft stage.

Should be an interesting read.
I'm planning on going to london again, if possible during uni (what with the whole dirt poor business) or for a spell in between under- and postgraduate work, so I'll be looking forward to it.

74 replies. This has gone further than I would ever have thought. My thanks again to you all: