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TL/DR: Give me a good choice and I'll gladly pay for it.
Growing up music was inaccessible to me. CDs were expensive, mtv required cable (expensive), ... I could only suffer the whims of radio (nothing like getting laughed at while calling in a request). Then Napster came and I had the ability to listen to whatever I wanted, watch any music video, find bootlegs, and then to burn mix CDs! It opened new worlds for me. Like, I could actually listen to the music that influenced the bands I like!
I understood that it was hurting the industry but it's not like the bands I liked were getting any money and there was already plenty of critique of the recording industry. It's weird to ask me to act ethically when the entity I'm dealing with is not... And I was broke, I just didn't care.
Now I get most of my music through bandcamp. They treat the artists pretty well and I have some money to spend. I also try to go to shows and buy a tshirt (instead of a $12 beer).
They made it political, it was a choice made at a corporate level. Which is fine but it also makes pirating political. We are also not some anarchist punk band or something... These are large corporate entities employing a business strategy. Acting like pirating is hurting their artist expression is kind of silly. :marseyshrug:
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