Yay! And editorial by randomclassic

[randomclassic]

So this is my editorial for this months issue of my school newspaper (I'm in the Journalism class) that was due yesterday but I forgot to print out. LOL... Tell me what you think of it. I know I was all over the place in it, and I apoligize

< BEGIN EDITORIAL >

Downloading Music, what’s the deal?

by Hannah Clark
Teenagers everywhere today download music, whether it is a paid music downloading service (iTunes, Napster) or a non-pay service (Kazaa, Morpheous), music downloading has become one of America’s biggest industries and it shows no sign of stopping anytime soon.

The biggest issue with music downloading is HOW and WHERE people download it from, and what the DO with it. Most people download music just for personal use, and that’s cool, but they don’t download them from legal sites. And well that’s illegal.

But if you download them from legal sites, it’s all should be all good. Most legal downloading sites offer a very wide range of music ranging from Rock to Classical. And most of them offer it at very low prices per song (or album). A lot of the sites have songs at as low as 99 cents per song, and $10 per album. That is a great deal for getting the music that you want.

However since most teenagers don’t have a credit card, or a debit card, they stick to the good old free-music downloading sites. That’s ok as long as you don’t download an artist ENTIRE cd. One thing to remember is the 24 Hour rule.

The 24 hour rule is to just download ONE song of an artists album and keep it for 24 hours on your computer, if you like it delete it off your computer, and go by the cd, and if you don’t delete it off your computer and don’t buy the cd, after all there is no point in keeping the song if you don’t like it.

Many artists have says in this also John Foreman, the lead vocalist and guitarist of Switchfoot (a Christian rock band) said this, "I have mixed opinions on the file swapping dilemma. On the one hand, I understand what it's like to be broke: having to choose between the concert ticket and the cd. On the other hand, I also know a lot of amazing people in the music industry who have lost their jobs recently. The whole situation is a lot stickier than people make it out to be. As a band, MP3's have helped us and hurt us by exposing our music to people that otherwise might have never heard the songs, and at the same time doling out our livelihood for free."

Some stars have different opinions for example Sarah McLachlan said, "It's frustrating as an artist to know that there are people who are taking my music for free, especially if they're file-sharing and thousands of people then have the option to take it for free. It's one thing when we were kids and we made tapes for our friends of songs. But it went to five people and now it goes to an infinite amount of people."

So if your going to download music do it legally, after all you want to support your favourite recording artists don’t you? There are tons of legal music sites, like Apples iTunes (however you would need an iPod for this), Napster, AOL Music, or Rhapsody Digital Music Service. Or if you MUST do it illegally remember the 24 Hour rule.

< END EDITORIAL >

Source http://www.whatsthedownload.com/ (I love this site, it had exactly what I wanted to say in it, but I couldn't put into words. It made it so much easier for me to put my thoughts into words.)


And now a few quotes from a couple of my friends

“Eho cares? If it’s considered stealing from the artists, they are rich, they can handle a bit of a loss, and as long as you’re not like mass producing their CDs and selling them for yourself then I see nothing wrong with it,â€

[EireWolf]

You might want to remove the names, for privacy.

I understand the frustration of the artists. I wouldn't want prints of my art to be distributed for free unless I gave permission.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

hmm

well, if ya want to discourage the use of kazaa or morpheus, say that you have a great chance of downloading a virus or a trjoan onto your computer.

I stopped using kazaa and p2p because... it was dumb..

lol, now i ask people for music.

[randomclassic]

You might want to remove the names, for privacy.

I understand the frustration of the artists. I wouldn't want prints of my art to be distributed for free unless I gave permission.

Yeah.. lol.. I kinda forgot about that.. Anyway I have a revised version of it at school, and I shall post it tomorow.

I actually didn't use my friends quotes in it, they really weren't needed.

[true_noir_chloe]

Great points, and not too hate-mongering or full of bashing. You gave the people who might not agree with you a way to save face, by your 24 hour rule and by your wording. Whereas, you gave grace to them, and I love that about your editorial. You put forth how some is illegal, and then how to do it legally. It had the quality of what you need for a good unbiased editorial.

A very positive and good job, randomclassic. ^____^ *thumbs up*

Also, I agree with Eire about the privacy thing with the friends names.

[randomclassic]

Great points, and not too hate-mongering or full of bashing. You gave the people who might not agree with you a way to save face, by your 24 hour rule and by your wording. Whereas, you gave grace to them, and I love that about your editorial. You put forth how some is illegal, and then how to do it legally. It had the quality of what you need for a good unbiased editorial.

A very positive and good job, randomclassic. ^____^ *thumbs up*

Also, I agree with Eire about the privacy thing with the friends names.

AWWW thanks so much! I really tried hard to make it like that, and it was quite hard to get it in the right words. That's why I am so happy I found the site I put as my source. It had exactly what I wanted to say in it, and it made it a lot easier for me to put the editorial in my own words. LOL.

That made me feel so good. XD. Thank you so much for the compliments.

And on a different note when the newspaper comes out I think I shall scan it and show everyone here it. So you can all see the finished and revised content of it. Hehe

[Kawaiikneko]

Great!

Kazaa is EVIL!!! It screwed up my little old laptop so bad. >< I deleted it....

itunes is cool. I reaally wish they had a bigger Christian rock music selection. And if they had J-rock I would love them SOOOOO much. Sadly.... they don't >_>

They don't have many songs from a few years ago but it has all the recent ones. But when it comes to music I either load my own cds into my computer or or my friends let me borrow their cds and I load them in. >_> <_< I don't really burn cds unless its to make myself copies cause I really only listen to music on my computer. My cd player got shot after I brought it camping.... it got waterlogged or something -_-;;

[blkmage]

Well, technically, there is no such thing as an illegal downloading service. All of the services are legal, in that they provide you with downloadable music. It's misleading to think that pay == legal. I'm sure there are those artists who allow free, legal sharing of their music on Kazaa. The networks themselves are not illegal, it's the content being shuffled around that is.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

he is right

p2p utilities are LEGAL, the content is NOT (such as music, and programs)