Reply #47: I confess: I am a supporter of musicians

[mainer]

I host house concerts for several bands a year. At the most, I'm able to bring in about 50 - 100 audience members per concert. I offer the bands a dinner, and they get the entire take of the ticket sales, plus they get the chance to sell their CD's. I provide free snacks for the audience. I take nothing from the concerts, and sometimes, I even throw money into the pot, when they have a poor turnout because I feel sorry for them. Each concert probably puts me out about $50 - 100, and I do it only because I believe in supporting artists.

These musicians are barely making it. Some of them are incredibly gifted composers as well as musicians, and among the most respected in their genre of music in the country. They are all struggling. They wander like gypsies from concert venue to concert venue, playing to, at the most, a few hundred people if they're lucky. They crash at friends' houses. Their income depends on attracting audiences -- and selling CD's.

In this day and age, even with a ticket price of only $12 for admission, it's hard to attract people to come out on a cold night to watch a house concert.

And you people here, who are so enthusiastic about the "great advance" of music piracy, are condemning these musicians to eternal poverty for their art. They need the income from their CD sales. Once their music is uploaded for endless free downloading, why would anyone come out to listen to their music live? Why would anyone spend $12 for a CD?

You say, "hey, it's great if you're popular enough to be ripped off!" If I were to come into your house and steal something of yours, would you be happy that your house was popular enough for thieves to break in?

Pirated downloads are theft. Theft from artists who are already struggling. And to defend it is immoral.