Why we pirate music

zyklonABC · 1 month

I just do it because free is always cheaper. I have no moral justification, it's just that I want free stuff.

Quothefool · 1 month

I'll call bullshit. People pirate because they want media, and they want it free, either because they can't afford it otherwise or simply because they are cheap. It really is as simple as that.

spamdown · 1 month

And this is funny why?

shoeler · 1 month

pro-piracy post on reddit? brave

stabag · 1 month

Spotify. A huge, free library of music. No need to pirate really.

JimAdlerJTV · 1 month

Never thought I'd downvote a Thom Yorke quote, but this is a repost AND is in the wrong subreddit.

PepsiDude002 · 1 month

TIL it's okay to pirate music because radio stations have shitty music.

Tashre · 1 month

Stupid and unfunny, so why do I have a strong feeling that this is going to the front page?

ThirstForSavings · 1 month

It is 2012, this is not relevant in the slightest.

Wargall · 1 month

You actually pirate shit because most of you are poor as fuck

chain_chomp · 1 month

Pandora?

supernuckolls · 1 month

TIL: Thom Yorke and Clay Aiken are the same person.

frownifdown · 1 month

This is a terrible argument. The alternative to pirating music isn't listening to the radio, it's paying for music on itunes or through some other medium.

austin3i62 · 1 month

Why we repost shit.

lrrrgg · 1 month

I used to pirate music all the time, and still do only when its not on Google Play / Amazon. I have realized that while driving in the car and wanting to hear something specific, it is so convenient to buy it on my phone and have it in seconds.

I now buy a lot more music. But if it's not available in those marketplaces, I pirate it.

I used to have an iphone but was so worried about the music not being transferrable to my other devices, I was still pirating.

TL;DR I buy more music now that vendors are offering quality and convenience comparable to the pirated versions.

penultimator · 1 month

What's the difference between saving music by torrent versus recording and saving a song that plays over the radio?

johnnytightlips2 · 1 month

Besides the fact this isn't funny, it's also not true. Can you only buy songs played on the radio now?

fassaction · 1 month

As a musician, I always gave my music away because I just wanted people to hear the music. I learned that if you give away free music and people think the music is good, people will come see you play. They will buy tickets, shirts, AND often buy a hard copy of your album......but you are not going to sell any CDs if you are putting out a crap product.

Prime example....Periphery's new album. It leaked....I downloaded it. I friggin loved the album so much, I went out and bought the hardcopy because they deserved it.

Maybe if more bands put out less shitty music, their record sales would go up.

ctcuk · 1 month

But if you bought the music, wouldn't they play it more?

zlo2 · 1 month

That was neither funny nor true.

steamed__hams · 1 month

This is the dumbest thing anyone has ever said.

Pirating doesn't help you find good music. It helps you steal music you've already found and want to listen to. Just about anything you're pirating can be purchased via Amazon or iTunes.

ellentoneff · 1 month

Why is this in r/funny? -__-

caveman_rejoice · 1 month

I don't care for Radiohead. (oh please don't hurt me.)

hooizyoo · 1 month

This is kind of a bullshit argument. Regardless of whether the radio plays what you like, you have the option to buy it and own it legally. Itunes and every other service that sells albums and singles lets you preview every single song on the album too, so you really can't say that you don't want to buy an album without knowing if you'll like it first. I honestly don't really care if people illegally download their music, but just admit that you're doing it because you don't want to pay for it.

gr8number8 · 1 month

I once went up to Thom Yorke after a Radiohead show at the Hollywood Bowl to tell him how much I enjoyed his music. It was an after showy sort of thing with a DJ. After getting past his ginormous bodyguard, I was able to tell him how much his music meant to me. After I told him, he didn't say a word, gave a sneering look and looked the other way. I started listening to other bands with less shitty front men. Edit bodygUArd, not bodyGAurd*. Call off the hounds!

dime5150 · 1 month

False. Dumb to blame radio programming for ones inability to find good music.

Especially now. We have tons of avenues and pick and choose music. People just don't like PAYING for it.

Manisil · 1 month

Why do I always pirate? because I just spent 200 bucks on tickets to your god damn concert, thats fucking why

hotbert73 · 1 month

He's not wrong about the radio being shit. especially in my town. classic 70s rock , light rocks greatest hits( all 80s light shit) and country.

RexBeckett · 1 month

As a sociologist, Thom Yorke is a great songwriter. Sure, Thom, people steal cars because buses are so boring.

This one's easy, people pirate music because values have broken down so much that stealing became "okay" when enough others were perceived as doing it. Simple as that.

Because of that breakdown, recorded music has been utterly devalued—what once was a commodity is now simply a commercial used to advertise a performer's shows.

saarmi · 1 month

I don't pirate music.

I use spotify. Although no metallica is on. And no Led zepplin but there are alot of music on it, but not everyone is on it.

Small people can also put music on there if you write to them or anything.

Quick question! Do you guys in America have spotify? Or is it just european?

SuperSaiyanVigoda · 1 month

I pirate music. Lots of it.

I also go to lots of concerts. This is my justification.

arch4ngel · 1 month

He is right for my own side of the story.

When I was young I pirated all my music. At some point, I kind stopped when I could listen to Grooveshark. No more "mp3 sync at work" and all that jazz. I build a playlist at home and listen to it at work. It's convenient.

In my car, radio is shit. Too many ads that gets me out of my comfort zone. Instead, I registered for XM Radio. That shit is expensive. But I can pay that amount to have access to no-ads music radio. If I could have a service that allow me the same access... but for a cheaper price... I would change right away.

Insane isn't it? Pirate ready to pay for music.

It's not just a "radio is shit" problem. It's also an accessibility problem. Apple has done a great job with that so far.

Anyway... just my 2 cents.

artacuno53 · 1 month

There is not 1 punk or electronic station where I live, so hes right

_supernovasky_ · 1 month

The bands I listen to don't care if you pirate their music. They make all of their money off of live shows. Hell, the thing most commonly downloaded are soundboards of their live shows... widespread panic, phish, string cheese incident, keller williams, sts9, etc.

NCSUspoon · 1 month

People are willing to pay for creative content. Just look at the online specials by comedians Louis CK, Jim Gaffigan, and Aziz Ansari. But in the 21st century, people are also aware of the distributions and profits the industries are trying to enact. We want a fast, cheap and available download of the content we love. iTunes has done a pretty good job with this while still ignoring the cheap part. Ebooks have a huge problem with this. At $1 a song or $20 for an Ebook, consumers know the content isn't more to produce from an online media. If we can't get access to the media we want at a price the market deems fair, we will go somewhere we can get that, aka piracy. And of course the opposing argument is those artists like Nine Inch Nails who release their content at whatever price the audience wants and they don't get anything because if we can get it for free we will. But the industry needs to make a platform to easily attain the music at a fair price or else they won't win. So far they haven't and they're not.

Moozhe · 1 month

I think musicians like Thom Yorke realize that the radio industry is an entire industry based around leeching money off of his work. They want to be the gatekeepers for someone else's work, and they want a cut of the profits.

In the past the radio was more necessary to sell records since you needed people to be exposed to your music before they'd buy your record. Now people can pirate or listen to you on YouTube before they buy, which are both 100x more convenient than the radio.

Dawngaward · 1 month

I buy music if I really like the music, I download it if I don't care/don't feel like visiting youtube everytime.

coolguy1793 · 1 month

let's be real: Internet "piracy" is the new radio. Music industry needs to accept this and move on and develop a new model where their revenue is based on artist touring, merchandising, and licensing for commercial radio (as it's always done).

eat-your-corn-syrup · 1 month

make payment easier than pirating and i will pay. Also, make it cheap.

LizardsRmeiLyfe · 1 month

He's just jealous Radiohead, ironically, is not played on the radio.

Xiattr · 1 month

If your music is good, I will purchase it. Because you have gone out of your way to make significant music, I will go out of my way to give you money to support the music I have already otherwise acquired.

I don't know if your music is any good until I've heard it.

If I hear your music and hate it, bet I'm glad I didn't buy it, huh?

And if I am forced to purchase your music because I can not otherwise download it, and I find out I hate it I will declare you a con artist and make sure everybody I know knows what a con artist you are.

I know this may be a double-edged sword of a philosophy: I demand good music and the ability to hear it without having to pay if I am going to think about paying for it, and therefore others may not wind up paying, because why, I already have it?

But making us pay for your music isn't going to help spread you around. And it certainly isn't going to turn you into a superstar.

MilkyJoe7 · 1 month

BBC RADIO 6 MUSIC

TheMorphling · 1 month

No, you pirate because you want stuff for free instead of supporting the artist. Stop sugar coating it, if you illegally download something because: a) it's too expensive for you b) you don't think the maker deserves money for what they have done c) you don't like some aspect of what they are doing (I see this a lot with games, people "boycott" the game by not paying for it) d) the legal version has DRM that's inconvenient. You are just pirating because you don't want to pay for it.

Only time pirating stuff is ok if it's IMPOSSIBLE for you to obtain it legally, say a game can't be bought in Australia because it has too much violence in it. Or the music is from a band in Iran, but they don't sell CDs internationally.

powerfulbuttblaster · 1 month

After WFNX in Boston closed yesterday, I feel this statement is more relevant than ever. Clear Channel now owns 5 of Bostons FM channels. They also took away our beloved WBCN.

I do pirate music because I can be a cheap asshole, but I do buy music from those who deserve the money.

SleepCycles · 1 month

Thom might be an ugly swine but he's not an idiot.

The radio thing is only sort of true. Radio is good if you know when to listen to it. Online radio has made it very easy to listen to lots of great new and interesting music.

I buy a lot of music because I both DJ a radio show and collect vinyl and other rarities. I also download music because when I want that limited to 45 cassette and its sold out, I probably know one of the guys that bought one and I can get a decent rip. Is it any different to how folk would dub a vinyl to a tape 20 years ago? Nobody was getting locked up for that on mass.

Bandcamp makes it slightly easier to get OOP material when they sell the digital but it hardly covers all the material that I want to get a hold of.

Support the music you love. When you can't support a musician with money, what are they losing out on if you download their music? They just gained a fan who will potentially go on to buy a record or go to a gig.

DidntClickGuy · 1 month

I pirate all sorts of stuff, and when I like it, I buy it.

Sorry TV series people - you're going to have to wait until the DVDs come out before you get paid. :(

elfstone666 · 1 month

I do it simply because I really can't afford CDs. When I can spare some money I do like to get albums I enjoyed at a reasonable price online. That is less than 15$.

SuperGandolf6 · 1 month

the mans logic is a lil off

InternetSam · 1 month

Unpopular reddit opinion of the day: I think pirating music is bad and you should feel bad.

[deleted] · 1 month

Ol' Thom shoulda thought of this before he signed a record contract guaranteeing them exclusivity to sell his record and play it on the radio.

Atomisk · 1 month

I'm not particularly anti-piracy, but I'm seeing a pretty big hole in the logic of this quote. People don't pirate music because they don't like the radio - they pirate it because it's free and easy. I don't like the radio either but I still buy all my underground stuff. (inb4 "your money goes to labels, not artists". Most of the stuff I buy is generally from a small collection of labels that I support).

thesosnuggly · 1 month

its ironic because he is in a band called radiohead

RocksAndSoup · 1 month

Hell yea Radiohead!

butterscotchripple · 1 month

You fucking twits defending your behavior. Just admit you do it because it easier and cheaper, those are the fucking reasons. I can justify anything if I twist it right: "I had to eat those babies, they were going to grow up to eat other babies."

Hyperzilean · 1 month

How I feel about that quote

itstrueimwhite · 1 month

Yeah, not because it requires minimal effort and is free...

random314 · 1 month

People just wants stuff for free. It's simple as that. All that crap about fighting the system is bullshit. 10 years ago pirating might have serve a reason, but not anymore.

qwerqs3 · 1 month

pathetic excuse.

red321red321 · 1 month

i never really thought of it this way. i do it because i'm a criminal who doesn't want to pay for music but when i think about it half of the music that i like and that i've listened to and still listen to i cannot find on the radio.

chiablo · 1 month

I would also be more than willing to give artists money for a DRM free, inexpensive digital copy of their album. Trent Reznor had the right idea with his Ghosts albums.

If I could go onto an artist's website, pay $5 for MP3s of their latest album, I would stop pirating music completely.

teejaydub · 1 month

Funny that he would say that, since Radiohead, and presumably Thom Yorke, stole one of their first singles "Creep" from The Hollies, to which The Hollies sued the members of Radiohead and won for copyright infringement.

Proof

Tobius__Funke · 1 month

As someone who rarely buys music.. this quote does not work.

I'd go with the, so much modern music is shit, people would rather not pay for music that might be shit than spend money on something that turns out to be shit.

SewprA · 1 month

http://i.imgur.com/JNqqO.jpg

funny

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