Saturday Song: Air Kelly, Watch the Stars

A friend of mine gave me an MP3 file of this song and I immediately fell in love with Air Kelly. After listening to a few albums of this music on YouTube, I knew I had to add the band's albums to my wish list.

Hear Air Kelly's song here.

Do you remember the controvercy back in the nineteen-eighties regarding home taping being detrimental to the music business? I've found that much of the music I recorded from library records and friend's LPs resides in my music collection today. I've ended up buying CD copies of the music I loved.

This brings up a thorny subject, namely the command in Exodus 20:15 (KJV) which reads, "Thou shalt not steal." Is recording music and passing copies to friends theft?

I've given this matter much thought and I conclude that it is stealing. Artists work hard to produce their wares. They expect to be paid, just as any other labourer or professional should. By bootlegging copies, it diminishes the amount of sales that creative folks rely upon.

And it isn't just those individuals who end up hurt by illegal copying and trading of MP3 files. Record companies lose out as well. This indirectly hurts up-and-coming bands since companies become cautious about signing up new talent. Independent labels and bands are hit even harder by the theft of their work.

My hope is to purchase all the music which I taped in the past. I've already bought many CDs of my favourite bands and I plan on buying MP3s of the songs which I've liked in the past.

If you would like to comment on this song and what I've written, please do so. But if not, have a nice weekend anyway.