insomnia's bitch

shut up, bono

dbnew:

inthefade:

“A decade’s worth of music file-sharing and swiping has made clear that the people it hurts are the creators — in this case, the young, fledgling songwriters who can’t live off ticket and T-shirt sales like the least sympathetic among us.”

Bono, calling for internet controls.

First of all, Bono, the young fledgling songwriters have no choice but to live off ticket and merch sales because that’s basically all they get. They make crap off of record sales, so don’t try to bullshit us that they’re losing money. They’re not going to see that money to begin with.

Second, Mr. Save the World With Your Smugness, if it wasn’t for the internet and music sharing and downloading, I wouldn’t have heard of half the bands whose music I purchased in the last ten years. That’s how people get heard these days. Most new bands would kill for people to download their music - for free or not - just to help spread the word about their albums. People hear this music, enjoy it and maybe go out and see the band, buy some t-shirts and CDs and the band didn’t have to spend all their hard earned money on some shitty PR gimmicks, money that would most likely come out of their own pockets because labels only spend that kind of money on bands that are going to produce hits, i.e., label created bands. Like Nickelback. Go ask any band that was on Roadrunner when Nickelback hit the scene if they saw any of the label’s money go into promoting their band. Nope. It all went to the manufactured hit factory. New bands, young, fledgling songwriters can go fuck themselves as far as labels are concerned. Nobody cares about promoting what may be the next big thing because the next big thing is being made in test tubes in their music labs.

I’m not saying that downloading music for free doesn’t have its down sides but please, Bono. Don’t pretend to speak for the unheard of, unsigned, unrecognized songwriters and musicians out there. I’d venture to say that most of them want to be heard in any way possible and stricter internet controls are going to take some of those means away.  Be honest, Bono. This is about you. Isn’t everything?

fuckyeahredhair:

“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.”

Neil Gaiman.

i couldn’t say it better myself.