Via MusicianWages.com

MusicianWages.com, Music Careers at About.com and KnowtheMusicBiz.com are organizing a group blogging event for all music and musician bloggers. MW recently received a comment from a reader concerned about her teenage son’s file-sharing. We believe that this is a topic with as many answers as there are musicians and invite you to join us in a synchronized response.

If interested, please write a response to the following question and post it to your blog on April 16th, 2009.  Send an email to webmaster@musicianwages.com with the URL of your response and we will post a list with links to all of the participating blogs.

Suggested title: To a Mother Concerned About File-Sharing

I have a teenage son who tells me his pirating music is no big deal. Since he is a musician himself, I point out to him that someday that’s going to be his money people are stealing. But he remains unphased.

He tells me the record sales make money for the record label, not the artist. He says that the artists make all their money from touring and live concerts. He thinks the pirated music promotes the concerts and therefore helps the artist make more money. I still don’t allow pirating in my house.

But tell me what you think – as artists out there having your work “shared,” are you just glad to have it being enjoyed, or does it bother you? Admittedly, he is stealing music that is recorded by major record labels, so maybe its different than the independent musician working for his living. But I’d still like to hear what you think.

Thanks,
Valerie

I will be posting a response on the 16th.  Please pass this along to anyone you might think would like to take part.