It’s time that I make the editorial position of this column absolutely clear. Digital file sharing should be legal in all circumstances, even if it means an almost wholesale abandonment of copyrights. It’s here and it’s not going away. The means of enforcing copyrights over digital music are onerous, and so far none have proved effective. Despite industries' and government’s best efforts, illegal file sharing is alive, and doesn’t appear ready to die any time soon. Our laws should accept this change and stop making criminals out of music fans.

I should point out, of course that this is my –Joseph Bogen’s— opinion and not necessarily the opinion of this website or anyone else. However, I’m certain that a large portion of the staff probably agrees with me. Where I’m probably in the minority here, and what I want to talk about this week, are the potential ramifications that these changes to our copyright laws and how I feel about them. Because I think removing copyrights over digital music kills the recording artist, I think that’s a good thing. It’s time for the recording artist to die.

I should clarify my position a little. I am not calling for the wholesale slaughter of all recording artists (although, if we got Nickelback, I might be able to accept some collateral damage). I just think as a commercial entity it’s time for recording artists to say goodbye. So what do I mean by recording artist? I’m certainly not saying that musicians should stop recording their music. While I still think concert taping is the wave of the future and in some ways more exciting than anything that can be done in the studio, I still think there is a place for purely recorded music.
All the same, it’s time we move past the era of the recording artist and the era where musicians expected, and frequently earned a living almost entirely through their recorded music. As I already said last week, the CD as a musical format is dead. It just doesn’t know it. Ending copyright protections of digital music would be the final nail in its coffin, and would spell the end of the careers of many musicians and songwriters.

We shouldn’t be so afraid of this. After all, recorded sound isn’t much more than a hundred years old, and it’s only been for the past 50 years or so that artists have been able to make a fortune from their recorded works. Some day when I have more time, I plan to do a research piece on the history of the music business and the musician’s life. I feel confident that I can say without a doubt that musicians have profited in a major scale from recorded works for only a tiny fraction of human history. This should be viewed as an aberration in human and musical history. Not a permanent fixture of our lives.

And it’s an aberration even if you look at it horizontally. Most musicians and songwriters currently do not earn a living from their recorded works. The majority of acts signed to major labels never see a profit from their contracts, and while an independent artist may be able to make a quicker return on their album sales, few see this translating into a reliable source of income. Those making millions of dollars selling albums and singles are a small minority. Cutting off recorded music as a source of income would certainly wipe out a lot of wealth at the top of the industry, but for the majority of musicians, it makes little difference.

The musicians that would be most hurt by this change are the ones I care the least about. Disposable pop acts who could never sustain a fan base that would support tours would potentially disappear. Bands who build their reputation and business on touring would flourish. Artists who record because they love the creative process and making art would continue to produce. Those who record to make money would find new jobs. Maybe this is a snobbish disregard for popular music. Well there’s no maybe about that. Most people aren’t willing to pay for pop music anyway, so why should the industry get to make so much money?

It’s not just the musicians who are affected by a post-digital copyright world. In fact, they might be the smallest piece of the puzzle. Industries built around recorded music would die. When it comes to the recording industry, I’m not going to lose a lot of sleep. This is an industry that has made a regular practice of ripping off its talent, price fixing –first CDs and now MP3s—and then suing the same customers they’ve been ripping off. If there ever was an industry that deserved a messy, ugly death, this was it. Instead of bailing out the industry by attempting to enforce unenforceable copyrights, we should just kiss it goodbye.

Where I become less cavalier about the consequences of free digital music is the record/CD store. This comes partially from nostalgia. I have many happy memories of browsing the shelves of my favorite independent stores to find new musical discoveries. But let’s get real here. Independent music stores are already hurting. My favorite stores in Dallas, where I grew up, are gone. Mondo Kim’s here in New York has downsized to nearly nothing. And Tower Records and Virgin Megastore –not exactly independent stores, but I always enjoyed their huge selections—are both gone. You can’t stop the inevitable.

There are other collateral consequences: our national competitiveness could be harmed when we can’t export our cultural products for a profit and independent labels would suffer just as much as major labels. Trust me. I’m not as casual about all of these consequences as I appear. But these aren’t sufficient reasons for sticking our heads in the sand and pretending that technology has drastically changed how we acquire and enjoy music. And even if all of my arguments are wrong, I still think it’s time we make digital music free. I don’t know anyone in my age group who doesn’t at least sometimes download music illegally. Laws that make criminals out of everyone just don’t make any sense.