One thing we like to kick around the donewaiting.com offices a lot is the question of how file sharing financially impacts smaller, indie bands. In an interview with Gawker, Ted Leo couldn’t have spelled it out any better for us:
Check it — Metallica are multi-millionaires. Who cares if they lose $100,000 to file sharing? I don’t. But speaking for myself and my band, a few hundred downloads that aren’t later backed up by purchases can be the difference between us paying rent or not. Ain’t nobody in my band got health insurance, you know what I’m sayin’? I’m just talking about RENT. So yeah — it hurts a bit, but I’m not going to tell people to not do it, it would just be nice if we could put all our cards on the table and forego some of the unproductive rhetoric that surrounds the issue. The RIAA can go fuck itself for all I care — my interaction with that world is almost nil, and I really don’t care if so-and-so has to put that last piece of bling they bought into hock. I’m just saying that there are people out there trying to do it righteously who could use a bit more support, and a good way to show it would be to give them something in return for what they give you. A musician can’t download a guitar, you know? (full interview)
[credz chromewaves]