1. Illegal Downloading
You're having a flashback to the turn of the millennium. Mp3.com and Napster are your friends. After years of pouring money into the big record company conglomerates by buying vinyl, cassettes and CD's (often of the same release) you can now ravenously consume as much music as you can get your greedy little hands on. You salivate as you pour over playlists of music that you can now get for free, staying up late into the night obsessively adding to your growing collection. If you've been with this internet thing since the beginning then the above scenario may be familiar. But something happened coming out the wild west of the '00's. It dawned on some of us that if we didn't pay for the music we loved then artists would no longer be able to make it. I dawned on some of us that the writers and performers of music deserve to get paid for the amazing entertainment they bring us. If consumers don't pay for the end product then who does? The artist. It's no surprise to me that Bobby had a lot to say about illegal downloading considering that he's been in the game since the start. Here are some of his thoughts, "The worst (thing about the 'net) to me is illegal downloads. I record and pay for my CD's myself or with investors. When I can't recoup because sales are down sometimes as much as 80% because of Torrent sites, it makes it ever more impossible to stay afloat." Here we are again at the point at which the rubber meets the road. The magic music fairy in the sky doesn't fly over Bobby's house and drop bags full of cash on his front lawn. Corporate Music America doesn't drop by the Throne of Vengeance band house with groceries, a bottle of wine and a blunt on Friday nights. Somebody, somewhere has got to pay the real world costs of creating, recording and distributing great music. That's you and me my friends. If you truly love an artist or band the best way to show it is this: buy a ticket to a show and take lots of cash for the merch table. Buy the iTunes download of their album and while you're at it order 10 hard CDs from their website to give away to friends. Here's the bottom line: if you truly love the music you support then put your money where your mouth is and buy it. The artists will thank you from the bottom of their hearts, souls and creative beings.
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