Original Music and the Internet - Free for the Taking

In the past few years, there's been major controversy concerning the downloading of music from the Internet and its connection to the failing recording industry. Those against downloading and file sharing see it as a simple case of copyright violation: both legally wrong and morally objectionable. However, supporters insist that the illegality of downloading is possibly questionable and usually acceptable in a moral sense.

But both sides will agree on one aspect: for people who don't wish to pay for music, it can be pretty much absolutely free. And there's an image for you to think about - the virtual gatecrashers of the 'net as hippie chill'en of the real life gatecrashers at Woodstock or the Isle of Wight.

But I've found a way around the whole mess that keeps everybody happy - just find some musicians that are willing to allow you access to their copryrighted material to listen to or download for free. And as it turns out, there are plenty of Internet posting sites where people will upload their own music for the general public to hear or download with minimum payment or none whatsoever.

The catch is that most of these musicians are virtually unknown to the world at large - and frankly, for at least some of them, that's deservedly so. I'm all for attempts at covering songs as a sort of complicated karaoke, or writiing generic run of the mill, pretty darn mediocre material - after all, you gotta start somewhere. But if you, as a listener, can wade through some of that, you'll find that pretty much every music posting site has a number of hot artists playing original material of every genre that you'd probably actually purchase with your hard earned cashola if your local indie CD and used vinyl store had it in stock. And why don't these great unknowns have a recording contract? Who knows - for whatever reason, they're toiling away in obscurity, still looking for the perfect chord as it were.

Article Author: JC Mosquito

JC Mosquito spends most of his day keeping the wolves from the door. When he's not occupied with this pasttime, he's interested in all things rock and roll, which may or may not have died back in the late '50's, the late '70's, or the early '90's …

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