By now virtually every student understands that downloading songs for free from the Internet isn’t legal. And the Recording Industry Association of America’s recent slew of lawsuits against individual people should be enough to make even the most determined Kazaa user in the dorms at least a little nervous.
While UCLA does not monitor campus networks and computers for illegal file sharing, as an Internet service provider, the university is required by law to reveal the names of subscribers who infringe on copyright laws if they receive a notice from a copyright holder of a violation.
But for music fans looking for affordable music that doesn’t break the law to obtain, there are many alternatives to playing with fire on free illegal downloading sites.
Amoeba Music in Hollywood offers frequent free concerts, as well an extensive used CD collection for students on a budget.
And for students who don’t need the physical CD and its cover in their album collection, numerous legal downloading services exist, the most successful of which has been Apple’s iTunes music store. Tracks are 99 cents a piece, and the site offers the occasional exclusive free MP3.
Indie labels such as Subpop Records and Kill Rock Stars offer sampler MP3s from their releases, as well as audio streams of full albums, and every album on Conor Oberst’s (of Bright Eyes fame) Team Love Records is available as a free download.
In addition, there are plenty of MP3 download sites with music provided by artists themselves; Epitonic.com features free music by underground and indie artists across the globe.
Creative Commons music encourages the presence of artistic work in the public domain with open content, making it legal to copy and make use of it as long as it’s not for profit.
Many famous artists such as the Beastie Boys, David Byrne, and Spoon have allowed the use of their music on the site at creativecommons.org.
“I get pretty much all my music and mixes now by music blogs, many of which have Creative Commons music,” said Dafna Pleban, a third-year English student. “But I still go to Amoeba when I have the time and money.”
The legal alternatives offer a much wider database of music than many people may think.
Creative Commons even goes so far as to encourage listeners to remix and mash up songs, and many artists make their songs available in the spirit of free music ideology and open sharing. Bands such as The Grateful Dead, Dave Matthews Band, and Wilco allow fan-recorded bootlegs of their concerts to circulate on sites such as etree.org.
“Downloading all this music basically allows you to stay ahead of the curve,” said Carman Tse, a second-year marine biology student.
“It does have an ‘I was there first’ mentality to it but it also lets you know what’s coming up and it lets you preview (an album) in its entirety.
“It helps me to make a decision whether or not I want to purchase it. I still do buy a load of music based on the music I get to download and preview.”
Hard as it is to believe, bands have been known to leak their own CDs onto the Internet.
Particularly in the case of indie artists, online music blogs, message boards, and hype generated by indie review sites such as the ubiquitous pitchforkmedia.com are usually their primary source of exposure.
Often, their labels can’t afford or don’t push for enough promotion, so they make their music readily accessible in hopes for enticing listeners to support and buy the music.
The widespread surge of music over the internet has also pushed music away from its scene-centeredness trait.
While in the past music has been known to be geographically rooted (take New York City punk, the neo-psychedelia of the Athens, Georgia Elephant 6 collective and, of course, the Seattle grunge scene), the Internet gives music international access, making it global.
“It’s great that people are hearing the music,” Tse said. “That’s still what’s important. Even if they may not be making money off the potential purchase, it still makes people fans of the music and brings them to shows and whatnot.”