Summer Spillman
Music has always been a balancer for my left-brained life...I studied science fervently in college and have worked as a Chemist. These days, I am focused on writing, playing sitar and mandolin, going to shows, and experiencing with relish all that comes my way. Music and the Internet: 'X File' Sharing
http://www.crunkbox.com/articles/articles/94/1/Music-and-the-Internet-039X-File039-Sharing/Page1.html
By Summer Spillman
Published on 12/21/2007
One music lover's observation of digital downloads.
Music and the Internet: 'X File' Sharing
Using a click of the mouse to integrate myself into the information
superhighway that we have all become gloriously addicted to, I find myself
itching to doubleclick on SoulSeek, our filesharing program…Yessss, the
illustrious SoulSeek, its charming logo winking at me saying, ‘Come on…You know
you want to Downnnlooaad Meeeeee!’
Not for an instant do I think, ‘But Summer, you can *pay* for these lovely compositions on these beautiful , flashy websites…or better yet, run up to the store and spend $20 or so on a new album of which I only like three songs or so, then come home and download them onto my computer.
Contemplating the legalities of my behaviour, I find my inner ‘Hyde’ taking over, thinking snobbishly to herself, if *I* were in a famous rock band, *I* would offer free downloads on by band’s website. My band is so good, I can make up the finances with live performances.
Brushing my snobbery away, other justifications for downloading music via filesharing try to creep in like diablitos in the night.
Just then, the SoulSeek Entity ‘made its presence known’ to me. Bowing dutifully, I ask, ‘What is thy bidding, Mastah?’
Ah, yes. Today it is the classic sound of Otis Redding’s ‘Try A Little Tenderness’ that beckons my clicking hand.
Click. Clickety Click. Click. Click….Click. Drag, Click.
Ahhhhhhh…….
The sound fills my ears like water. Well, supernatural, resounding, ethereal water that is. You know…it is amazing how the internet has changed our lives. And how these illegal downloads have changed the music industry. Would MP3’s be so popular and successful without the wave of illegal downloading? Would I have even heard of half the bands I now know and love without the existence of filesharing?
Sitting back staring at the computer, I visualize all of the computers of the world connected. So when I think to myself, ‘Where is all of this going? What is our technology leading us to?’ I have to sit back for a moment and contemplate….
The internet is leading us to Universal Connection…an intertwining of the minds of the world.
This could be my Sci-Fi mind at work here (note the Star Wars reference earlier in the article…if you didn’t recognize it, you have some homework to do!) but what if one day our minds are so interconnected that we no longer need the computers? Literally bypassing the physical aspect of the relationship? What if we were all just naturally ’tapped in’ to each other? The illegal downloading of music couldn’t exist. Hmmm…
OK…stop right there, I say to self. One thing at a time, please. The internet has helped the people of our planet connect in ways we never imagined 100 years ago. And what better link to persons on our planet than music?
Music…..that exquisite emanation that comes from the very center of one’s heart, and speaks to so many others in an infinite number of ways. As many ways as one can imagine….
One’s passion, their joy, their mind, their Voice in the world displayed in such a manner that cannot be denied. Could music save the world?
Coming out of my reverie, I sit a little stunned. What started as contemplating illegal downloads somehow became very different. They call it ’filesharing’. Can music really belong to one person? Doesn’t music belong to us all? Once you put it out there…can you really validate making the sharing of such illegal?
Isn’t putting your voice out there, the fact that people love and want to hear your Voice and your beauty enough?
Must one be penalized for sharing it?
Sighing, I sit back, losing myself in the illegally downloaded music…This time the Silversun Pickup’s Lazy Eye…And all I can think is, thank you.
Thank you for creating this music, for sharing your passion with the world.
As for downloading, music and the internet, there is only one thing I can say about them that I know is true.
And that is, they will change…all of it. Change, the one constant in life, the one constant in the entire Universe.
What it will change into is what we create as a species, together.
The question is….What do we want to create?
Not for an instant do I think, ‘But Summer, you can *pay* for these lovely compositions on these beautiful , flashy websites…or better yet, run up to the store and spend $20 or so on a new album of which I only like three songs or so, then come home and download them onto my computer.
Contemplating the legalities of my behaviour, I find my inner ‘Hyde’ taking over, thinking snobbishly to herself, if *I* were in a famous rock band, *I* would offer free downloads on by band’s website. My band is so good, I can make up the finances with live performances.
Brushing my snobbery away, other justifications for downloading music via filesharing try to creep in like diablitos in the night.
Just then, the SoulSeek Entity ‘made its presence known’ to me. Bowing dutifully, I ask, ‘What is thy bidding, Mastah?’
Ah, yes. Today it is the classic sound of Otis Redding’s ‘Try A Little Tenderness’ that beckons my clicking hand.
Click. Clickety Click. Click. Click….Click. Drag, Click.
Ahhhhhhh…….
The sound fills my ears like water. Well, supernatural, resounding, ethereal water that is. You know…it is amazing how the internet has changed our lives. And how these illegal downloads have changed the music industry. Would MP3’s be so popular and successful without the wave of illegal downloading? Would I have even heard of half the bands I now know and love without the existence of filesharing?
Sitting back staring at the computer, I visualize all of the computers of the world connected. So when I think to myself, ‘Where is all of this going? What is our technology leading us to?’ I have to sit back for a moment and contemplate….
The internet is leading us to Universal Connection…an intertwining of the minds of the world.
This could be my Sci-Fi mind at work here (note the Star Wars reference earlier in the article…if you didn’t recognize it, you have some homework to do!) but what if one day our minds are so interconnected that we no longer need the computers? Literally bypassing the physical aspect of the relationship? What if we were all just naturally ’tapped in’ to each other? The illegal downloading of music couldn’t exist. Hmmm…
OK…stop right there, I say to self. One thing at a time, please. The internet has helped the people of our planet connect in ways we never imagined 100 years ago. And what better link to persons on our planet than music?
Music…..that exquisite emanation that comes from the very center of one’s heart, and speaks to so many others in an infinite number of ways. As many ways as one can imagine….
One’s passion, their joy, their mind, their Voice in the world displayed in such a manner that cannot be denied. Could music save the world?
Coming out of my reverie, I sit a little stunned. What started as contemplating illegal downloads somehow became very different. They call it ’filesharing’. Can music really belong to one person? Doesn’t music belong to us all? Once you put it out there…can you really validate making the sharing of such illegal?
Isn’t putting your voice out there, the fact that people love and want to hear your Voice and your beauty enough?
Must one be penalized for sharing it?
Sighing, I sit back, losing myself in the illegally downloaded music…This time the Silversun Pickup’s Lazy Eye…And all I can think is, thank you.
Thank you for creating this music, for sharing your passion with the world.
As for downloading, music and the internet, there is only one thing I can say about them that I know is true.
And that is, they will change…all of it. Change, the one constant in life, the one constant in the entire Universe.
What it will change into is what we create as a species, together.
The question is….What do we want to create?