[Jandek] Torrent/file sharing Jandek music

[CJ Marsicano]

I'm extremely iffy on file sharing but, in the manner on which you are speaking - wholesale downloads of major portions of an artist's discography, whether the artist is an indie artist or a major - I am wholly against. 

I only ever do it if the item is out of print completely (which is not the case with the Jandek discography at all), if its a bootleg live album, or if it is an album by an artist I am already planning to buy on the day of release (or in the case of the J-pop I cover on my music blog, I've preordered it from a site in Japan) and I catch wind of a leak, or if I am in desperate need of an album in mp3 for which I don't have immediate access to a CD I already have but it not available on iTunes, Amazon or eMusic.

The idea of thinking that its OK to download anyone's music for free is a very juvenile idea. I've written a more detailed screed on this "imagined" entitlement at my blog here: http://thegroovemusiclife.com/2009/01/16/you-are-not-entitled-to-free-music/

- CJ Marsicano



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-----Original Message-----
From: brendan stewart <brendankifostewart at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2010 01:38:17 
To: <jandek at mylist.net>
Subject: [Jandek] Torrent/file sharing Jandek music

Hi. This is my first post on this mailing list, glad to be on it! I
had searched the archives a little, I couldn't see if this was
discussed before or not, sorry if it has been brought up recently.
I've been wondering about this for a while, and thought that this
mailing list would be the proper place to bring this up. I was
wondering what some of the opinions on file sharing/torrenting Jandek
was. By file sharing/torrenting, I mean things like limewire, torrent
sites, megaupload, any sort of sharing for free.

 I can see how this would be viewed as a negative thing (and can't say
I don't agree with that conclusion, to be honest). Not to make too
heavy an assumption, I picture Corwood :at best: breaking even on this
whole Jandek thing. I also picture them not doing it for fame, or
money, or women or anything else like that. Obviously, he also loses
control of how the music is distributed, whether it result in the
cover art not being shared with the albums, or in not knowing how many
records are out there, or anything of that nature.

At the same time, there are some positive things about it. Besides the
music being more widely available, it may help certain albums from
getting 'lost forever', as has happened to many, many artists (I
believe there is a boards of canada cassette that is completely gone
from the face of the planet, not that I'd miss it...), and, in my
opinion most importantly, there are lossless copies of all of him
albums, mostly ripped from vinyl (when available), which not only
helps the not vanishing thing, but could also (wishful thinking) give
Corwood access to completely lossless copies of all the music, in the
case of something horrible happening.

Honestly, I'm split. I'm not going to pretend I never torrented any of
his music (only did it in the past, when I first got into Jandek), but
I have recently considered sending payment for the albums I downloaded
to Corwood as a sentiment, so I don't know how to feel really. Anyone
have any opinions on this?

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