Tegan And Sara : The Con

My friends are always making fun of the music I like to listen to. I have a rather eclectic mix of music that I enjoy and an even more eclectic group of friends. Some of my friends prefer to only listen to hip-hop, some listen to hardcore music, while others are in what they like to call "experimental rock". So depending on which group of friends I'm with, I can bet that someone is going to take a jab at one of the newest albums out that they don't particularly like.



If there's one band that I get teased about the most, it's Tegan And Sara. Tegan And Sara are a female duo who are releasing a new CD on July 24th. Because I believe in the freedom of the internet and the impossible task of preventing file-sharing of any type, I downloaded their new CD before it released. Now, before I elaborate on how amazing their new album is, let me explain why I think file sharing is a good thing which actually stimulates the economy.

I was the first person I knew with a computer. A few years later, I become the only person I knew that had the internet at their house. From an early age, I have always been interested in music. I learned how to play the guitar when I was ten years old and am proud to say I have just purchased my first drum set at twenty-two years of age. With this type of background, it was no surprise when I started using IRC to download music and videos before P2P networks were being widely used anywhere.

If it wasn't for P2P networks and websites such as last.fm, I wouldn't be listening to half of the music that's on my computer. It's a bit risky going to BestBuy and spending $20 on a CD when you have no idea who the band is. I would venture a guess that only about 20% of the music on my computer is downloaded. I love Tegan And Sara. But I can't purchase their new CD yet. So instead, I download it. Then when it does become available, I'll go to the store and buy it. Not because I care what the RIAA thinks or says is legal or illegal. But because I don't want a great band to have fall apart. Musicians are people too. They need an income just like everyone else.

So because of this small portion of music that I have downloaded I've learned about a myriad of bands and different types of music that I never knew existed. In a sense, because I downloaded a few cd's, I ended up purchasing five times that amount at the store. Thus supporting the store, the record company, and the band.

Tegan And Sara have their own blog which they post pretty much bi-weekly. You can find it by going to their website and click on the Journal link in the middle of the page.

Napster Versus Metallica

Napster: Launched in 1999, was started by Shawn Fanning as a way to help people find and download music for free in the popular MP3 format.

But was it really all that simple? No, unfortunately it wasn't. The fatal flaw with Napster was it's design. Instead of having a backbone like BitTorrent, Napster had central servers so that when you submitted a request for a song, it would contact the Napster servers, which would then search other people's computers on the Napster network for the song, thus facilitating that song's transfer.

This was fatal for Napster because in early 2000, Metallica filled a lawsuit against Napster for allowing users to distribute their music online without paying royalties.

It's hard to copyright intellectual property which is what Marc over at P2P-Weblog was discussing in his most recent blog. It's relatively easy to copyright something tangible because you can hold it, examine it, take it apart. But who's to say that a song, which expresses certain emotions, feelings, and words, can be copyrighted? How does the creator know that the combination of chords he is using to create a chorus has never been used before?

Napster today is a mere shadow of what it used to be. Today it offers a service just like Apple's iTunes Music Store. You have to pay for every song you want to download. This,unfortunately, was the only legal way for Napster as a company to survive.

Personally, I don't think P2P Networks have anything to worry about. Whenever a corporation or group of lobbyists find some way to shut down a P2P network, like Napster, another one usually pops up to fill the void.