Dark Was The Night
I’ve been looking forward to the Dark Was The Night compliation album produced by members of The National and including many of my favorite bands. Proceeds from the compilation benefit the Red Hot Organization, “the leading international organization dedicate to fighting AIDS through pop culture.” A tweet, lead me to a blog entry, which pointed me to another blog entry which pointed me to the whole 2 disc album leaked and available as mp3 downloads. Needless to say, I downloaded it, am listening to it through for the first time now, and am enjoying it. Since it’s a charity album, I’ll buy it when it comes out to not only support Red Hot but to let them know what project I’m supporting. So let’s get that out of the way… it’s the definition of “ethical downloading”.
However, on that original blog entry, a user named pterodactyls writes “Putting a charity album up for free download is just….wrong. Is anyone downloading this going to ‘support the cause?’ I highly doubt it.”
It’s hard to discuss weather this is “right or wrong”. It is certainly illegal. However I reject the argument he makes, that by making music available as a free download that it will reduce album sales. In some cases, free content can actually boost your sales.
Lets get more concrete and discuss this album in particular. It is being released by indie label 4AD in conjunction with a non-profit. It’s received little hype from the traditional media sources (have you heard of this album yet?). Its release will not be met with great fan-fare like the Lilly Allen’s Myspace debut tonight. Its rare that singles from compilation albums break out into mainstream success and with the money going to charity there are no market forces to drive marketing and promotion. So what do they have going for them? A great album, a mix of artists who have their own following, the Internet as a marketing and distribution medium (the legal kind like Myspace Music and iTunes) and word of mouth. Dark Was The Night needs a lot of people to listen to the album. The more people who praise the album, the more hype it will recieve, the more sales it will garner.
Of course, my argument is moot since it is illegal to make someone elses copyrighted IP available on the Internet without their consent. Perhaps its Red Hot and 4AD who should have released it themselves with the donate-ware model that Radiohead and NIN succuessfully proved.
