*YAWN*
I love looking at the comments at TorrentFreak. It lightens up a dull moment, especially with all the stupidity.
I only torrent stuff because it's out of purchase reach. I remember when I used to go on 7Digital and have access to international material. Well, a few years back, they took that away. So I can't give them my money unless I go on the iTunes UK store and use gift cards. But then it's rare that you even see gift cards on eBay that aren't for the US store.
I don't want to be subjected to import fees or fees due to using my credit card on an international site. I just want to buy my music now, not when the US gets it 6 months later and it becomes "cool" here.
When you pirate, you don't just hurt the author, you hurt the whole industry. It is not just a writer and their publisher, it's a whole team of people. And the same goes with music. There is the label, the songwriter, the sound engineers, the person who masters the work, and everyone else.
When I was taking audio engineering in my first year at college, they said that you could be making $2,000
a day per every artist/band working in there. But most of that money goes to up keeping. You have to keep up with the styles of music, the new tech that people are wanting to use to record, and it's an ongoing thing of buying and selling stuff.
When artists and labels can't afford to do music the proper way, you put everyone involved out of business.
And I'm tired of the whole "I'm only going to listen to it 10 times" and "music isn't good anymore" theories that these jerks have. You either go the streaming route, or you don't download it at all and listen to it on the radio like the rest of us.
People think that you can make a radio friendly song in a day. That is FAR from the truth.