There is an increasing dichotomy between two sides of my personality, the musician side, and the music fan side. As the economy enters into a recession, and my paycheque shrinks appropriately, my ability to purchase the music I want to listen to becomes taxed. When I was in university, it wasn't uncommon to use my new access to highspeed internet for illicit downloading of tracks, but I have done my best since leaving the ranks of the student world to purchase all the music I listen to, whether it be via pay downloading sites, or actual physical CDs. As a musician, I have always felt that artists should be properly renumerated for their work, especially artists struggling to make a living on the indie side of things.
Now this principle is coming into conflict with my lack of funds, and I find myself making excuses for downloading things for free that I perhaps should be paying for. These excuses include things such as saying to myself "I would love it if people downloaded my music at all, let alone for free, therefore so should band X", or "I'll buy this album when I can afford it", when I know that I probably will have forgotten the existence of the band by the time the next paycheque.
So I'm trying to figure out how to market myself and maintain my principles. If I am going to continue as a music fan, which I undoubtedly will in some way or another, I have to find a better way of gaining access to music without pirating it, at the same time as providing potential fans with access to my music at little or no cost. Any readers out there have any good ideas?
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