Lately,
two factors have made me re-consider my music purchasing habits.
The
first was moving house last September and finally having somewhere to
present my collection of records and CDs. In unpacking all of my CDs
from plastic boxes that had previously resided in my loft, I was
surprised at how many things I'd accumulated that I no longer
especially cared for - half-built collections of New Order singles
and spin-off projects from that band, dance music singles that
haven't lasted the test of time, compilation albums that I bought
just for one song; that sort of thing. There was also the attendant
realisation that actually I still didn't have enough space to put
every CD I own out on display, and so I've been thinning out my
collection ever since via eBay and Discogs.
The
second contributing factor arose out of more ethical considerations.
Since I started being taken slightly more seriously as a music
journalist with the pieces I've written for Clash, most of the music
that I've written about has been delivered to me digitally. PR
companies and labels tend to issue promotional copies of releases
these days in the form of watermarked downloads, the watermark being
there to discourage you from sharing it; the implication is that if
you do leak or share it, it can all be traced back to you and the
appropriate punishment administered. Consequently there are less and
less 'physical' pieces of music coming into my house these days.
Anything I do buy tends to be something that's genuinely worth buying
from a collectability point of view - highly limited cassettes such
as ones I've received lately from bands like Security and Table
Scraps, boxsets or limited, special items such as a recent
hand-stamped Maps 12" - or cheap second hand vinyl bought from
Discogs. In the case of any physical music arriving on my doorstep, I
tend to convert it more or less straight away so I can listen to it
on my iPod whilst travelling, given that this is where I write most
of my reviews.
What's
ethical about the latter factor? Not a lot on face value, but getting
more music sent to me digitally has made me ponder on what the most
ethical, or more accurately, sustainable way of purchasing music is.
The answer isn't readily available. I've seen no academic papers on
this, no official research and Google searches don't seem to throw
anything up. I enquired of an ethical investment research company
that I meet with periodically, and they were also not aware of
anything that had been written on the subject.
So,
my own very crude and simple assessment. On the one hand, physical
formats - vinyl, CD, cassette and even the advent of ever-cheaper
cheap USB sticks loaded with music - are energy- and
resource-intensive to manufacture and the resultant physical object
is not easily recycled, nor is it easy (except perhaps with vinyl) to
manufacture them from recycled materials. On the other hand, the
energy and server requirement that's needed to keep the cloud online
as a placeholder for downloadable music makes the comparison and
decision over the most sustainable format really difficult; with more
and more stuff getting put into the cloud, the energy consumption
(especially for cooling servers) is on the increase, as is the
requirement for the hardware to support it.
In
the absence of any meaningful guidance and until someone tells me
otherwise, I'm going with gut instinct and opting for downloads. All of which makes the $100 I dropped on CDs in New York in the last fortnight somewhat surprising, but you'll have to wait until next time for that.
Tricky indeed. But you do seem to assume that all songs that are downloaded are done so legally, which is probably what you do, but many people do it illegally. So while music as a physical product (CD, vinyl, etc.) may seem more resource-intensive, you may hope that the manufacturers compensate this damage by planting trees once a year or so. And people are willing to buy CD's/vinyl because they get not just the songs but also the physical, tangible object itself. So as a CD/vinyl buyer you can always hope that a small percentage of the money that you spent on the product is spent by the manufacturer to compensate for ecological damage. And even if you don't care about ecology but only about the tangible object, the manufacturer may still do so without your realisation.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to legally downloading songs (e.g. iTunes), you can hope the same: a proportion of the money you give to iTunes will be directed to the company that owns the server, and you may hope that this company tries to compensate its use of energy and material. And, once again, even if you don't care about ecology, the company may still do so without your realisation. But with illegally downloading songs, you as a downloader are not contributing to anything. So the servers from which you illegally download cannot use your money to plant trees or whatever. And to a lot of people, the question "to download songs legally or illegally?" is a very easy decision: illegally. The result to both, namely having a bunch of mp3s on your computer, is the same. And a lot of times it's just as easy to illegally download something as it is legally, or even easier! Only two things make the latter unethical: 1) the artist/record label won't get money from you, 2) the server won't get money from you. So only conscientious people who care about one of both of these two things may choose legal downloading over illegal downloading. The majority of other people (who are far more egocentric and think only about themselves and the present) just want the product itself and don't care about environmental damage. So I think that physical formats are better, because you can hope that the manufacturers are ecologically responsible. And so if you as a consumer then buy a CD, you have no choice but to contribute to the manufacturers' ecological stance. But as a consumer of downloads, you (for most people unknowingly) do have a choice depending on your legal/illegal stance. So maybe it's time for record companies to start advertising how clean their manufacturing companies are, as opposed to those dirty, "illegal" servers, in a plea to encourage people to buy physical formats more.
Wow this post turned out way longer than I thought but I hope I got my point across.
BTW, this topic made me think about this great article on illegal downloading that I read in Q magazine last year, and I see now that they uploaded it on their site. It's not really related to your point but perhaps you find it interesting if you haven't read it already: http://news.qthemusic.com/2012/07/column_-_how_free_is_ruining_e_1.html
Thanks for this reply. I always knew that this would be a divisive post.
ReplyDeleteTo be completely clear, I do not download music illegally. As a music writer, I know that my place in this merry-go-round is to help the music industry (even if I don't rate something very highly), and that represents my personal ethics about copyright.
To compound matters, I am an avid record collector - I love the tangibility of the physical product.
I still think we need proper research into this area, and I will continue to pursue the ethical investment research company I mentioned above.
Thanks again.
- MJAS